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THE ' 



WONDERS OF ART; 

CONTAINING 

AN ACCOUNT 

CELEBRATED ANCIENT RUINS ; FORTIFICATIONS ; 
PUBLIC EDIFICES; MONUMENTS; 

AND SOME OF 

THE MOST CURIOUS AND USEFUL INVENTIONS 
IN MODERN TIMES. 

DESIGNED FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF YOUNG PERSONa 
BY THE REV. J. !/• BLAKE» D. D. 



' This huge rotundity we tread grows old. 
And all those worlds that roll around the ■an/' 



is^ 



TROY, N. Y. : 

PUBLISHED BY YOUNG & HARTT. 

1845. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 

REV. JOHN L. BLAKE, D. D, 

In the Clcrk»8 Office of the District Court for the Southern DUtrict of 

New York. 



i' 






PREFACE. 



Had we never seen or heard of a common watch, on 
first being presented with one we should think it a won- 
derful production. But as we have been familiar with it 
from childhood, we think little or nothing of it. We feel 
no admiration for it, unless it have some extra workman- 
ship or decorations about it. In that case we think far 
more of its glittering diamonds, and of its richly embossed 
ornaments, than we do of its ingenious and perfect mech- 
anism. This is precisely the same as it is in surveying 
the works of nature. We scarcely give a thought to that 
portion which we have always seen in profusion, and 
which has been made the subject of investigation, although 
it be the star-bespangled heavens which hang over our head 
like a curtain — or the green earth spread under our feet, 
like a richly wrought carpet. 

Hence, while endeavoring to arrest the attention of 
readers, and especially of young readers, we endeavor to 
present such objects as they may not have heard of, or 
with which they are not familiar, to the neglect of other 
matters in themselves more worthy of attention. This 
consideration has guided the editor, in the preparation of 
the following little volume. It is made up also in refer- 
ence to persons of different grades of literary attainment. 
Nor should those most advanced in knowledge, imagine it 
is not designed to answer the purpose intended, because 
some of the articles to themselves are stale ; to tens of 



4 PREFACE. 

thousands less favored than themselves, these very ar- 
ticles will be new, and will carry to their minds all the 
charms of novelty. 

And further to adapt the volume to the diversified tastes 
and literary attainments of the readers for whom it is de- 
signed, it is made up of materials ancient and modern — 
useful and curious; so that if a portion of them find apart 
of it uninteresting to themselves, they will find another 
part of it possessed of all desirable attractions. Indeed, 
if the same reader should find a fifth part only of the 
volume thus interesting to himself, he may think him- 
self well compensated in the perusal of it. We ought 
not to expect that each of us will find every sentence, 
and every paragraph, and every page of the book w^e read, 
will be alike good mental food for us all. The bee 
is unable to convert into honey all that it gleans even 
from the beautiful flower. Nor does the miner, in dig- 
ging up the earth, find the precious metals free from al- 
loy. 

The aspirant for knowledge must be contented with 
similar results ; and must labor patiently to treasure up 
the good, while passing over or casting away what is of less 
or of no value to himself. It is believed that this volume 
to all such will be acceptable ; and if so, the compiler 
will be abundantly satisfied. 

Nkw York, Sept. Ist^ 1845. 



CONTENTS. 



Noah's Ark, 7 

The Tower of Babel, , 12 

Ruins of Ancient Babylon, 15 

The Ruins of Palmyra, 25 

The Ruins of. Balbec, , 29 

The City of Jerusalem, 33 

The Pyramids of Egypt, 35 

The Ruins of Herculaneum, 38 

Ruins of Pompeii, 44 

Pompey's Pillar, 55 

Coliseum of Rome, 60 

Aqueducts, 62 

The Appian Way, 65 

The Chinese Wall, 66 

Balloons, 69 

The Tower of London, 72 

The Croton Water-works, 85 

Paper Making, 95 

Canals, 103 

Imperial Canal of China, 109 

Erie Canal, New York, Ill 

Percussion Locks, It8 

The Pendulum, 129 

The Use of Parchment, 122 

The Art of Dyeing, 123 

Curious Automatons, 128 

Automaton Chess Player, 130 

Automaton Musicians, 135 

1# 



6 CONTENTS. 

Pagk. 

Automaton seated at a Pianoforte, 138 

Automaton Coach and Horses, 140 

Automaton Singing Bird, 141 

St. Peter's Church at Rome, 142 

St. Paul's Church, London, 146 

Westminster Abbey, 149 

The Iron Steam-ship Great Britain, 154 

Herschell's Grand Telescope, 163 

Fortress of Gibraltar, 164 

Ancient Roads, 167 

Railroads, 169 

The Shoemadoo at Pegu, 179 

American Antiquities, 184 

Invention of Steamboats, 191 

First-rate Man-of-War, 196 

Curious Clock at Strasburg, 198 

Clocks in the form of Chariots, 200 

Mechanical Theatre, 202 

Bunker Hill Monument, 203 

United States Capitol, 209 

New York City Hall, 212 

Pennsylvania Old State House, 216 

Fortifications of Quebec, 218 

Catacombs of Rome, 222 

History of Manufactures, 227 

Working of Metals, 230 

Manufacture of Glass, 232 

Manufacture of Porcelain, 234 

Capitol of New Hampshire, ! 235 

Anatomical Dissections, 238 

Porcelain Tower of Nankin, 240 

Egyptian Tombs and Mummies, 241 

Burial-places near Constantinople, 249 



WONDERS OF ART. 



NOAH'S ARK. 



An ark is a vessel to swim upon the water, usu- 
ally applied to that ia which Noah and his fami- 
ly were preserved from the universal deluge. 
The ark has afforded several points of curious 
inquiry among the critics and naturalists rela- 
tive to its form, capacity, materials, and other 
particulars. The wood of which it was built 
is called in the Hebrew, gopher-wood, and in 
the Septuagint, square timber. Some translate 
the original cedar, others pine, and others box. 
Pelletier prefers cedar, on account of its dura- 
bility and the great plenty of it in Asia ; 
whence Herodotus and Theophrastus relate, 
that the kings of Egypt and Syria built whole 
fleets of it instead of deal. 

The learned Mr. Fuller, in his Miscellanies, 
has observed, that the wood whereof the ark 
was built was nothing but the cypress-tree ; 
for, taking away the termination, keepar and 
gopher differ very little in sound. This ob- 
servation the great Bochart has confirmed, and 
shown very plainly that no country abounds so 



8 WONDERS OF ART. 

much with this wood as that part of Assyria 
which lies about Babylon. 

In what place Noah built and finished his 
ark is no less a matter of disputation. But the 
most probable opinion is, that it was built in 
Chaldea, in the territories of Babylon, where 
there was so great a quantity of cypress in the 
groves and gardens in Alexander's time, that 
the prince built a whole fleet of it for want of 
other timber. And this conjecture is confirmed 
by the Chaldean tradition, which makes Xisu- 
thras (another name for Noah) set sail from 
that country. The time taken to build the 
ark is also much disputed, some making it 
fifty-two years ; others seventy-eight, one hun- 
dred, and one hundred and twenty. The Ma- 
hommedans say it was constructed in two 
years. 

The dimensions of the ark, as given by Mo- 
ses, are 300 cubits in length, fifty in breadth, 
and thirty in height ; which some have thought 
too scanty, considering the number of things 
it was to contain; and hence an argument 
has been drawn against the authority of the 
relation. To solve this difficulty, Buteo and 
Kircher have proved geometrically, that taking 
the common cubit of a foot and a half, the ark 
was abundantly sufficient for all the animals 
supposed to be lodged in it. Snellius computes 
the ark to have been above half an acre in 
area. Dr. Arbuthnot computes it to have been 
81,062 tons. 



WONDERS OF ART. 9 

It contained, besides eight persons of Noah^s 
family, one pair of every species of unclean 
animals, and seven pairs of every species of 
clean animals, with provisions for them all 
during the whole year. The former appears, 
at first view, almost infinite ; but if we come 
to a calculation, the number of species of ani- 
mals will be found much less than is generally 
imagined ; out of which, in this case, are ex- 
cepted such animals as can live in the water ; 
and Bishop Wilkins shows that only seventy- 
two of the quadruped kind needed a place in 
the ark. 

By the description Moses gives of the ark, 
it appears to have been divided into three 
stories, each ten cubits or fifteen feet high ; 
and it is agreed on as most probable, that the 
lowest story was for the beasts, the middle for 
the food, and the upper for the birds, with Noah 
and his family ; each story being subdivided 
into difterent apartments and stalls, though Jo- 
sephus, Philo, and other commentators, add a 
kind of fourth story under all the rest ; being, 
as it were, the hold of the vessel, to contain 
the ballast, and receive the filth and faeces of 
so many animals ; but F. Calmet thinks that 
which is here reckoned a story was no more 
than what is called the keel of the ship, and 
served only for a conservatory of fresh water. 

Drexelius makes 300 apartments ; F. Four- 
nier, 333 ; the anonymous author of the ques- 
tions on Genesis, 400 ; Buteo, Temporarius, 



10 WONDERS OF ART. 

Arius, Motitanus, Hostus, Wilkins, Lamy, and 
others, suppose as many partitions as there 
were different sorts of animals. Pelletier 
makes only seventy-two, viz. thirty-six for the 
birds, and as many for the beasts. 

As to the number of animals contained in 
the ark, Buteo computes that it could not be 
equal to 500 horses ; he even reduces the whole 
to the dimensions of fifty-six pairs of oxen. F. 
Lamy enlarges it to sixty-four pairs of oxen, or 
128 oxen ; so that, supposing one ox equal to two 
horses, if the ark had room for 256 horses, there 
must have been room for all the animals. But 
the same author demonstrates that one floor 
of it would suffice for five hundred horses, al- 
lowing nine square feet to a horse. 

As to the food in the second story, it is ob- 
served by Buteo, from Columella, that thirty or 
forty pounds of hay ordinarily suffice for an 
ox a day : and that a solid cubit of hay, as 
usually pressed down in our hayricks, weighs 
about forty pounds ; so that a square cubit of 
hay is more than enough for one ox in one day. 
Now, it appears that the second story contain- 
ed 150,000 solid cubits ; which divided between 
206 oxen will afford each more hay by two- 
thirds than he can eat in a year. 

Bishop Wilkins computes all the carnivorous 
animals equivalent, as to the bulk of their 
bodies and their food, to twenty-seven wolves ; 
and all the rest to 280 beeves. For the former 
he allows 1825 sheep ; and for the latter 109,500 



WONDERS OF ART. 11 

cubits of hay ; all which will be easily contain- 
ed in the two first stories, and a deal of room 
to spare. As to the third story, nobody doubts 
of its being sufficient for the fowls, wi'th Noah, 
his sons and daughters. 

Upon the whole, the learned bishop remarks, 
that of the two it appears much more difficult 
to assign a number and bulk of necessary 
things to answer the capacity of the ark, than 
to find sufficient room for the several species 
of animals already knovA^n to have been there. 
This he attributes to the imperfection of our 
list of animals, especially of those of the un- 
known parts of the earth ; adding, that the most 
expert mathematician at this day could not 
assign the proportion of a vessel better ac- 
commodated to the purpose than is here done, 
and hence he concludes that the capacity of 
the ark, which had been made an objection 
against scripture, ought to be esteemed a con- 
firmation of its divine authority ; since in those 
ruder ages men, being less versed in arts and 
philosophy, were more obnoxious to vulgar 
prejudices than now ; so that had it been a 
human invention, it would have been contriv- 
ed according to those notions which form a 
confused and general view of things, as much 
too big as it had been represented too little. 

Besides the places requisite for the beasts 
and birds, and their provisions, there was suf- 
ficient room, therefore, for Noah's household 
Utensils, instruments of husbandry, and seeds 



12 WONDERS OF ART. 

to SOW after the deluge ; for which purposes 
he might spare room in the third story for 
thirly-six cabins, besides a kitchen, a hall, four 
chambers, and a space about forty-eight cubits 
in length to walk in. 



THE TOWER OF BABEL. 

It is not, in the least, to be doubted, that 
Noah and his family, for some years after the 
flood, continued to reside in the nei^ghborhood 
of the mountains of Armenia, where the ark 
had rested. But his descendants, in course of 
time, having a numerous progeny, the greater 
part of them quitted this place, and directing 
their course eastward came at length to the 
plains of Shinar, on the banks of the river Eu- 
phrates. Attracted by the convenience of its 
situation and the natural fertility of the soil, 
they resolved not to proceed any farther, but 
to make this their fixed place of residence. 

Having formed this resolution, in order to 
render themselves famous to future genera- 
tions, they determined to erect a city, and in 
the city a building of such stupendous height 
as should be the wonder of the world. Their 
principal motives in doing this were, it is sup- 
posed, to keep themselves together in one body, 
that by their mutual strength and councils, as 
the world increased, they might bring others 



WONDERS OP ART. 13 

Under their subjection, and thereby become 
masters of the universe. 

The idea of the intended tower gave them 
the most singular satisfaction, and the novelty 
of the design induced them to enter upon its 
construction with the greatest alacrity. One 
inconvenience, however, arose, of which they 
were not at first apprized, namely, there being 
no stone in the country with which to build it. 
But this defect was soon supplied by the na- 
ture of the soil, which being clayey they soon 
converted into bricks, and cemented them to- 
gether with a pitchy substance called bitumen^ 
the country producing that article in great 
abundance. As the artificers were numerous, 
the work was carried on with great expedition, 
and in a short time the walls were raised to a 
prodigious height. But the Almighty being 
dissatisfied with their proceedings, thought 
proper to interpose and totally put an end to 
their ambitious project ; so that the fruit of 
their vanity became only a monument of their 
folly and weakness. 

Though the descendants of Noah were at 
this time exceedingly numerous, yet they spoke 
the same language. In order, therefore, to 
render their understanding inefi'ectual, and to 
lessen the towering hopes of those aspiring 
mortals, the Almighty formed the resolution 
of confounding their language. In consequence 
of this, a universal jargon took place, and the 
lifferent dialects caused such a distraction of 

2 



14 WONDfiRS 01* AM. 

thought, that, incapable of understanding of 
making known to each other their ideas, they 
Were thrown into the utmost disorder. 

By this awful stroke of divine justice, they 
were not only deprived of prosecuting their in- 
tended plan, but of the greatest pleasure a so- 
cial being can enjoy, namely, mutual converse 
and agreeable intercourse. We are not, how- 
ever, to suppose that each individual had a 
peculiar dialect or language to himself; but 
only the several tribes or families, which are 
supposed to have been about seventy in num- 
ber. These, detaching themselves according 
to their respective dialects, left the spot, which, 
before the consequences of their presumption, 
they had considered as the most delightful oil 
earth, and took up their temporary residences 
in such places as they either pitched on from 
choice, or were directed to by chance. 

Thus did the Almighty not only defeat the 
designs of those ambitious people, but likewise 
accomplish his own, by having the world more 
generally inhabited than it otherwise could 
have been. The spot on which they had be- 
gun to erect their tower, was, from the judg- 
ment that attended so rash an undertaking, 
called Babel, (afterwards Babylon.) which, in 
the Hebrew tongue, signifies confusion. 

The confusion of tongues and dispersion of 
the family of Noah, happened 101 years after 
the flood, as is evident from the birth of Peleg, 
the son of Heber who was the great-grandson 



WONDERS OF ART. 15 

of Shem, and was born in the 101st year after 
that memorable period. He received his name 
from this singular circumstance, the word Pe- 
leg, in the Hebrew language, signifying parti- 
tion, or dispersion. 

The descendants of Noah being now dis- 
persed, in process of time, from their great in- 
crease, ihey scattered themselves to distant 
parts of the earth, and, according to their re- 
spective families, settled in different parvs of 
the world. Some took up their residence in 
Asia; some in Africa; and others in Europe. 
By what means they obtained possession of 
the several countries they inhabited, the sa- 
cred historian has not informed us. It is, 
however, natural to suppose, that their respec- 
tive situations did nol take place from chance, 
but from mature deliberation ; and that a 
proper assignment was made of such and such 
places, according to the divisions and subdivi- 
sions of the different families. 



RUINS OF ANCIENT BABYLON. 

The city of Babylon, the capital of the an- 
cient kingdom of Babylonia, is supposed to have 
been situated in N. Lat. 32° 34', and in E. 
Long. 44° 12' 30'^ It was founded by the first 
descendants of Noah, 2,234 years before Christ ; 
enlarged by Nimrod, the great-grandson of 
Noah, 2,000 years, B. C. ; and in a manner 



16 WONDERS OF ART. 

completely rebuilt, about 1,200 years before 
Christ, by the Assyrian queen, Semiramis. It 
was greatly strengthened and beautified by 
various succeeding sovereigns ; but it was by 
Nebuchadnezzar, and his daughter Nitroscis, 
that it was brought to such a degree of mag- 
nificence and splendor, as rendered it one of 
the wonders of the world. 

Babylon stood in the midst of a large plain, 
in a very deep and fruitful soil. It was divided 
into two parts by the river Euphrates, which 
flowed through the city from north to south. 
The old city was on the east, and the new 
city, built by Nebuchadnezzar, on the west 
side of the river. Both these divisions were 
enclosed by one wall, and the whole formed a 
complete square, 480 furlongs in compass. 
Each of the four sides of this square had twenty- 
five gates of solid brass, at equal distances ; 
and at every corner was a strong tower, ten 
feet higher than the wall. In those quarters 
where the city had the least natural defence, 
there were also three of these towers between 
every two of the gates ; and the same number 
between each corner and the nearest gate on 
its two sides. 

The city was composed of 50 streets, each 
15 miles long and 150 feet broad, proceeding 
from the 25 gates on each side, and crossing 
each other at right angles ; besides four half 
streets, 200 feet in breadth, surrounding the 
whole, and fronting towards the outer wall. 



WONDERS OF ART. 17 

It was thus intersected into 676 squares, which 
extended four farlongs and a half on each of 
their sides, and along which the houses were 
built at some distance from each other. These 
intermediate spaces, as well as the inner parts 
of the squares, were employed as gardens and 
pleasure-grounds ; so that not above one half 
of the immense extent w^hich the w^alls enclosed 
was occupied by buildings. 

The walls of Babylon were of extraordinary 
strength, being 87 feet broad, and 350 high. 
They were built of brick, and cemented by a 
kind of glutinous earth called bitumen, which 
had the quality of soon becoming as hard as 
stone. These walls were surrounded on the 
outside by an immense ditch, from which the 
earth had been dug to make the bricks, and 
which, being always filled with water, added 
very much to the defence of the city. 

On each side of the river Euphrates was 
built a quay, or high wall of the same thick- 
ness with the w^alls around the city. Ther'e 
were gates of brass in these walls opposite to 
every street which led to the river ; and from 
them were formed descents, or landing- places, 
by means of steps ; so that the inhabitants 
could easily pass in boats from one side of the 
city to the other. There was also a remark- 
able bridge throw^n over the river, near the 
middle of the city, built with wonderful art, of 
huge stones, fastened together by means of 
iron chains and melted lead ; and it is said to 

2* 



18 WONDERS OF ART. 

have been a whole furlong in length, and thirty 
feet in breadth. 

In order to prevent any inconvenience from 
the swellings of the Euphrates, two canals 
were cut from that river at a considerable dis- 
tance above the town, which carried off the 
superabundant waters into the Tigris. Prom 
the place where these canals commenced, down 
the sides of the river, both above and below 
the city, immense banks were constructed to 
conilne the stream still more effectually within 
its channel, and to prevent still more completely 
all danger of an inundation. In order to facili- 
tate the construction of these works, an im- 
mense lake was dug on the west side of Baby- 
lon, about 40 square miles, and 35 feet deep, 
into which the river was turned by a canal till 
the banks were completed, and it was then 
restored to its former course. 

At the two ends of the bridge over the Eu- 
phrates were two magnificent palaces, which 
had a subterraneous communication with each 
other, by means of a vault or tunnel under 
the river. The old palace, on the east side, 
was about thirty furlongs in compass, and was 
surrounded by three separate w^alls, one within 
the other, with considerable spaces between 
them. The new palace, on the opposite side, 
was about four times as large as the other, 
and is said to have been eight miles in circum- 
ference. 

The most remarkable structure in the new 



WONDERS OF ART. 19 

palace was tne hanging gardens, which Nebu- 
chadnezzar is said to have raised in order to 
give his wife, Amytis, daughter of Astyages, 
king of Media, some representation of the 
beautiful mountainous and woody scenes which 
abounded in her native country. These gar- 
dens occupied a square piece of ground 400 
feet on every side, and consisted of large ter- 
races raised one above the other, till they 
equalled in height the w-alls of the city. The 
ascent from terrace to terrace was by means 
of steps ten feet wide, and the whole pile was 
sustained by vast arches, and strengthened on 
each side by a solid wall, twenty-two feet in 
thickness. Within these arches were very 
spacious and splendid apartments, which are 
described as having commanded a very exten- 
sive and delightful prospect. 

There was so great a depth of earth, that 
the largest trees might take root. Here was 
every thing that could please the sight ; the 
largest trees, flowers, plants, and shrubs. On 
the highest terrace was an aqueduct supplied 
with water from the river ; from whence the 
whole garden was watered. It is aflirmed 
that Nebuchadnezzar undertook this wonder- 
ful and famous edifice out of complaisance to 
his wife Amytis, the daughter of Astyages ; 
who being a native of Media, retained strong 
inclinations for mountains and forests, which 
abounded in her native country. 

Near to the old palace stood the temple of 



20 WONDERS OF ART. 

Belus ; and in the middle of the temple was 
an immense tower, about 600 feet in height, 
and the same number square at the founda- 
tion. This huge pile of building consisted of 
eight towers, each 75 feet high, placed one 
above the other, and gradually decreasing to- 
wards the top like a pyramid. The ascent to 
the summit was accomplished by stairs on the 
outside, in a sloping direction, and of a spiral 
form ; and these, winding eight times round 
the whole, produced the appearance of as many 
towers regularly contracting their diameter. 
In the different stories were many lofty apart- 
ments, supported by pillars, and used as tem- 
ples in the worship of Baal ; and on the top 
of all was erected a complete observatory for 
astronomical purposes. What has been de- 
scribed is understood to hav^e been the old 
Tower of Babel ; but it was greatly enlarged 
by Nebuchadnezzar, who built around its base 
a number of other sacred edifices, forming a 
square nearly three miles in compass. 

The city of Babylon seems to have excelled 
in rioh and ingenious manufactures at a very 
early period in the history of the world ; and 
its goodly garments are mentioned 1,450 years 
before Christ, (Joshua vii. ver. 21 ; and 2 Sam. 
xiii. ver. 18.) For the space of 26 years after 
the death of Nebuchadnezzar, it continued to 
retail its glory, and was at once the seat of 
an imperial court, the station of a numerous 
garrison, and the scene of a most extensive 



WONDERS OF ART. 21 

commerce. It was at length invested, about 
540 years before Christ, by the victorious armies 
of Cyrus the Great. Crowded with troops for 
their defence, surrounded with such lofty w^alls, 
and furnished with provisions for twenty years, 
the citizens of Babylon derided the effects of 
their be^^ieger, and boasted of their impregna- 
ble situation. 

On the other hand, the conqueror of Asia, 
determined to subdue his only remaining rival 
in the empire of the eastern world, left no ex- 
pedient untried for the reduction of the city. 
By means of the palm.-trees which abounded 
in that country, he erected a number of towers 
higher than the walls, and made many desper- 
ate attempts to carry the place b)y assault. 
He next drew a line of circumvallation around 
the city, divided his army into tVv^elve parts, 
appointed each of these to guard the trenches 
for a month, and summoned his enemy to sur- 
render. iVfter spending two years in this 
blockade, he was presented with an opportu- 
nity of effecting his purpose by stratagem. 

Having learned that a great festival was to 
be celebrated in the city, and that it was cus- 
tomary with the Babylonians on that occasion 
to spend the night in drunkenness and de- 
bauchery, he posted part of his troops close by 
the spot where the river Euphrates entered 
the city, and another at the place wh^e it 
went out, with orders to march along the chan- 
nel whenever they should find it fordable. 



22 WONDERS OF ART. 

He then detached a third party to open the 
head of the canal which led to the great lake 
already described, and, at the same time, to 
admit the river into the trenches which he had 
drawn around the city. 

By these means the river was so completely 
drained by midnight, that his troops easily 
found their way along its bed ; and the gates, 
which used to shut up the passages from its 
banks, having been left open in consequence 
of the general disorder, they encountered no 
obstacle whatever in their progress. Having 
thus penetrated into the heart of the city, and 
met, according to agreement, at the gates of 
the palace, they easily overpowered the guards, 
cut to pieces all who opposed them, slew the 
king Belshazzar w^iile attempting to make re- 
sistance, and received the submission of the 
whole city within a few hours. 

At length, in the fifth year of Darius Hys- 
taspes, about 518 years before Christ, they 
openly raised the standard of rebellion, and thus 
drew upon themselves the whole force of the 
Persian empire. Determined upon a desperate 
defence, and desirous to make their provisions 
last as long as possible, they adopted the bar- 
barous resolution of destroying all such persons 
in the city as could be of no service during the 
siege. Having sacrificed the lives of their 
friends, and resolutely regardless of their own, 
they resisted successfully all the strength and 
stratagems of the Persians for the space of 



Wonders o^ ARt. 23 

eighteen months \ and fell at length into the 
hands of Darius, by the following extraordinary 
instance of fortitude in one of his officers: 

Zopyrus, one of the principal noblemen in 
the Persian court, appeared in the presence of 
his prince^ covered with blood, deprived of his 
nose and ears^ torn with stripes, and wounded 
in various parts of his body; unfolded to the 
astonished monarch his design of deserting to 
the enemy, and arranged his future plan of 
operations^ Approaching the walls of the city, 
he was carried before the governor, detailed 
the cruel treatment which he professed to have 
received from Darius, offered his services to the 
Babylonians, who were well acquainted wdth 
his rank and abilities ; acquired their confi- 
dence by several successful sallies ; obtained 
at length the chief command of their forces, 
and thus easily found means to betray the city 
to his master. 

As soon as Darius was in possession of Ba- 
bylon, he ordered its hundred gates and its 
impregnable walls to be demolished ; put to 
death 3,000 of those who had been principally 
concerned in its revolt, and sent 50,000 women 
from different parts of his empire, to supply 
the place of those who had been so cruelly 
destroyed at the commencement of the siege. 
In the year B. C. 478, Xerxes, the successor of 
Darius, returning from his inglorious invasion 
of Greece, passed through the city of Babylon ; 
and partly from hatred of the Sabian worshipj 



g4 WONDERS OF ART. 

partly with a view to recruit his treasures, 
plundered the temple of Belus of immense 
wealth, and then laid its lofty tower in ruins. 

In this state it continued till the year B. C. 
824, when Alexander the Great made an at- 
tempt to rebuild the sacred edifice, and to re- 
store its former magnificence* But, though he 
employed about 10,000 men in this work for 
the space of two months, his sudden death put 
an end to the undertaking before the ground 
was cleared of its rubbish. This mighty city 
declined very rapidly under the successors of 
Alexander ; and, in the year 294 B. C, was 
almost exhausted of its inhabitants by Seleucus 
Nicator, who built in its neighborhood the city 
of S.eleucia, or New Babylon. 

So very slight are the vestiges now to be 
found of ancient Babylon, that it is difficult to 
ascertain exactly the spot on which it stood ; 
so completely has been fulfilled the prediction 
of Isaiah : *' Babylon, the glory of Idngdoms, 
the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall 
be as when God overthrew Sodom and Go- 
morrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither 
shall it be dwelt in from generation to genera- 
tion ; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent 
there ; neither shall the shepherds make their 
fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall 
be there, and their houses shall be full of dole- 
ful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and 
satyrs shall dance there, and the wild beasts of 
the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, 



WONDERS OF ART. 25 

and dragons in their pleasant places." The 
striking accomplishment of Scripture prophe- 
cies, in the conquest, decline, and desolation of 
Babylon, is very fully illustrated by Rollin, and 
other eminent historians. 



THE RUINS OF PALMYRA 

This noble city of ancient Syria, also called 
Tadmor, is of uncertain date and origin, but is 
thought by many to have been the Tadmor in 
the wilderness built by Solomon. Its splendid 
ruins consist of temples, palaces, and porticoes 
of Grecian architecture, scattered over an ex- 
tent of several miles. The most remarkable 
of them is the Temple of the Sun, the ruins of 
which are spread over a square of 220 yards* 
It was encompassed with a stately wall, built 
of large square stones, and adorned with pi- 
lasters within and without, to the number of 
62 on each side. Yv'ithin the court are the re* 
mains of two rows of very noble marble pillars 
37 feet high, with their capitals of most exqui- 
site workmanship. 

Of these 58 only remain entire ; but there 
must have been many more, for they appear 
to have surrounded the whole court and to 
have supported a double piazza. The walks 
on the side of the piazza opposite to the front 
of the castle, seem to have been the most spa- 
cious and beautiful. At the end of this line 

3 



S8 WONDERS or' Afct. 

are two niches for statues, with their pedestals, 
borders, supporters, and canopies, carved with 
the utmost elegance. The space within the 
enclosure appears to have been an open court, 
in the centre of which stood the temple, en- 
compassed with another row of pillars of a 
different order and much taller, being 50 feet 
in height; of these 16 only remain. 

The whole space contained within these 
pillars is 59 yards in length, and nearly 28 in 
breadth. The temple, which points north and 
south, is 33 yards in length, and 18 or 14 in 
breadth. At its centre, on the west side, is a 
most magnificent entry, on the remains of 
which, vines and clusters of grapes are carved 
in the most bold and masterly imitation of na- 
ture that can Ije conceived. Over the door 
was displayed a pair of wings extending its 
whole breadth ; but the body to which they 
belonged is totally destroyed, so that it cannot 
certainly be known whether it was that of an 
eagle or of a cherub, several representations 
of both being visible on other fragments of the 
building. 

Its northern extremity is adorned with the 
most curious fret-work and bas-relief; and in 
the centre is a dome or cupola^ about 10 feet 
in diameter, which appears to have been either 
hewn out of the rock, or moulded of some 
composition which by time has become equally 
hard. North of this place is an obelisk, con- 
sisting of seven large stones, besides its capital 



WONDERS OF ART. 27 

and the wreathed work about it. It probably 
supported a statue, which the Turks in their 
zeal against idolatry have destroyed. At the 
distance of a quarter of a mile from this pillar, 
to the east and west, are two others, besides 
the fragment of a third, so as to lead to the 
supposition that there was originally a con- 
tinued row. 

About 100 paces from the middle obelisk, 
straight forward, is a magnificent entry to a 
piazza, 40 feet in breadth, and more than half a 
mile in length, enclosed with two rows of mar- 
ble pillars 28 feet high, and 8 or 9 feet in com- 
pass. Of these there still remain 129 ; and by 
a moderate computation there could not have 
been originally less than 560. The upper end 
of this piazza was shut in by a row of pillars, 
standing somewhat closer than those on each 
side. A little to the left are the ruins of a 
stately building, which appears to have been 
a banqueting-house : it is built of better mar- 
ble, and is finished with still greater elegance 
than the piazza. 

The pillars by which it was supported were 
of one entire stone, so strong that one of them 
which has fallen down has not received the 
slightest injury. It measures 23 feet in length, 
and in compass 8 feet 9 inches. At the west 
side of the piazza are several apertures for 
gates into the court of the palace, each of 
them ornamented with four porphyry pillars, 
not standing in a line with those of the wall, 



28 WONDERS OF ART. 

but placed by couples in the front of the gate 
facing the palace, two on each side. Two of 
these only remain entire, and one only stand- 
ing in its place. They are 30 feet in length, 
and 9 in circumference. 

On the east side ot the piazza stand a great 
number of marble pillars, some perfect, but 
the greater part mutilated. In one place 11 
of them are ranged in a square, the space they 
enclose being paved with broad flat stones, 
but without any remains of a roof. At a little 
distance are the remains of a small temple, 
also without a roof, and having its walls much 
defaced. Before the entry, which faces the 
south, is a piazza supported by six pillars, two 
on each side of the door and one at each end. 
The pedestals of those in fi'ont have been filled 
with inscriptions, both in the Greek and Pal- 
myrene languages, which are become totally 
illegible. 

Among these ruins are many sepulchres, 
ranged on each side of a hollow way towards 
the north part of the city, and extending more 
than a mile. They arc square towers, four or 
five stories high, alike in form, but dilfering 
in magnitude and splendor. The outside is 
of common stone; but the floors and partitions 
of each story are of marble. A walk crosses 
the centre of this range of buildings, and the 
space on each side is subdivided by thick 
walls, into six partitions, the space between 
which is wide enough to receive the largest 



WONDERS OF ART. 29 

corpse. In these niches six or seven are piled 
on one another. 



THE RUINS OF BALBEC. 

These magnificent ruins are described by 
Mr. Bruce as even surpassing what he had 
seen at Palmyra. He was particularly struck 
by the splendid vestiges of the great temple, 
supposed to have been dedicated to the sun. 
The Castle of Balhec, or Tower of Lebanon, is 
described by Father Leander, of the order of 
barefooted Carmelites, in his interesting trav- 
els, as a surprising monument of antiquity, 
built, according to the tradition of the natives, 
by Solomon. His relation is as follows : 

" Balbec is distant from Damascus, towards 
the north, about fifty miles, and on the southern 
side is watered by springs and rivulets, brought 
thither no doubt to fill the ditches by which it 
was to have been surrounded for defence, but 
which were not completed. It is situated on 
the lofty summit of a hill, in approaching 
which the facade of the castle is seen, having 
two towers at its right angles, between which 
is a great portico resembling the mouth of a 
vast cave, and provided with very strong 
walls. That on the right hand, by which the 
portico is attached to the tower from the west 
to the north, is composed of four stones only ; 



so WONDERS OF ART. 

the fifth, which was to have completed the fab- 
ric, being deficient. 

" The length of each of these stones is not 
less than sixty-two feet, and their breadth and 
height thirteen. They are so artfully brought 
together, without any cement, that they ap- 
pear to be only one solid block. The remain- 
der of the wall to the left is of hewn stones, 
well cemented with quicklime, the smallest 
of which are 6 feet in length, and 4 feet six 
inches in height ; there are many which are 
upwards of fifteen feet in length, but the height 
of all of them is the same. 

" Having entered the cavern by the grand 
portico, the traveller proceeds in obscurity to 
the distance of eighteen paces, when he at 
length perceives a ray of light proceeding 
from the aperture of the door which conducts 
to the centre. At each of the sides, and with- 
in this grand portico, is a flight of stone steps 
which leads to the subterraneous prisons. 
Their aspect is horrid, and thej^ are dangerous, 
inasmuch as they ?4.re wont to be frequented 
by bands of robbers, who here plunder, kill, 
and bury such wretched travellers as are im- 
prudently led by their curiosity to penetrate 
and risk the descent without being well es- 
corted. 

" Following the road above, by the cavern, 
to the extent of fifty paces, an ample area 
of a spherical figure presents itself, surrounded 
by majestic columns of granite, some of them 



WONDERS OF ART. 31 

of a single piece, and others formed of two 
pieces, the whole of them of so large a dimen- 
sion that two men can with ditficulty girt 
them. They are of the Ionic order of archi- 
tecture, and are placed on bases of the same 
stone, at such distances from each other that 
a coach and six might commodiously turn be- 
tween them. They support a flat tower or 
roof, which projects a cornice wrought' with 
figures of matchless workmanship : these rise 
above the capitals with so nice a union, that 
the eye, however perfect it may be, cannot dis-. 
tinguish the part in which they are joined. 

^*At the present time, the greater part of 
this colonnade is destroyed, the western part 
alone remaining perfect and upright. This 
fabric has an elevation of 500 feet, and is 400 
feet in length. In its exterior, and behind, it 
is flanked by two other towers similar to those 
of the first facade, the whole projecting from 
the wall, which withinside is provided with 
loop holes to keep off the enemy, in case of 
necessity, by the means of stones and fire. It 
also surrounds the colonnade, more particular- 
ly in the part \^^hich looks toward the east. 
At the left flank rises a temple which, tradi- 
tion says, was the hall of audience of Solomon, 
in height at ieast £0 feet, and long and large 
in proportion. Its stones are all sculptured 
with bas-reliels, similar to those which orna- 
ment Trajan's column at Rome, representing 
many triumphs and naval engagements. 



32 WONDERS OF ART. ' 

"Several of these bas-reliefs have been de- 
faced by the Saracens, who are the decided 
enemies of all sculptures. Withoutside this 
grand hall is an avenue of the same size and 
breadth, where the traveller admires a large 
portal constructed with three stones only, at- 
tached to which in the middle part, serving as 
an architrave, is seen, in a garland of laurel 
interwoven with flowers, a large eagle, admi- 
rably sculptured in bas-relief. 

" At the sides of the portal are placed two 
columns, in one of which, although formed of 
a single stone, is a winding staircase by which 
to ascend to the architrave : the passage is, 
however, very narrow. There is in the vicin- 
ity another temple of an octangular shape, 
with a portico of superb architecture, and hav- 
ing three windows on the side opposite to the 
former." 

On a large stone are inscribed these words 
in Latin : Diviso Mosei\ on which Father Le- 
ander confesses he knows not what interpre- 
tation to bestow. Thrice he returned to visit 
this splendid vestige of antiquity ; and on the 
last of these occasions, being well escorted, he 
proceeded to th43 distance of about a mile, to 
the foot of the mountains of Damascus, whence 
the stones employed in its construction were 
brought. He measured the stone which re- 
mained there, and which has been already 
noticed as having been intended for the fifth 
in the construction of the wall : it had been 



WONDERS OF ART. 33 

hewn out on all sides, was lying on the ground, 
and was simply attached to the rock at the in- 
ferior part. 

Its length and dimensions were such, that 
he could not conceive how it would have been 
possible to detach it, and still less with what 
machines to move, transport, and raise it to 
the height at which the other stones are placed, 
more especially as the sites, the roads, and the 
masses of rock are such, as to exceed in as- 
perity whatever the imagination can picture 
to itself In the vicinity of the cave whence 
these stones w^ere draw^n, is a very beautiful 
sepulchre supported by columns of porphyry, 
over which is a dome of the finest symmetry. 



THE CITY OF JERUSALEM. 

This ancient city of Asia has been the scene 
of occurrences the most interesting to the 
spiritual welfare of the human race. While 
the warrior, forgetting it as the place where 
the God of heaven deigned to commune most 
intimately with his creatures, and where the 
founder of our religion displa3^ed most mirac- 
ulously the powers of that God, with the deep- 
est interest traces upon the page of its history, 
sieges and battles— victories and defeats, more 
shocking in their progress and more bloody in 
their termination, than are found recorded, 
perhaps, of any other city on the earth. 



34 WONDERS OF ART. 

It was here that David strung his sacred 
lyre, the strains of which are still echoed fronri 
the sanctuaries of the living God. And it wa^ 
here too that Solomon built that temple, the 
splendor of which was so much admired in the 
ancient world. The most remarkable siege it 
ever underwent, is that when it was taken 
and destroyed by Titus, 70 years after the 
death of our Saviour. According to Josephus, 
97,000 prisoners fell into the hands of the con- 
queror, 11,000 perished with hunger, and the 
whole number slain and taken prisoners du- 
ring the war, was 1,460,000. It since has been 
the prey to various conquerors, until about 
1150, when it became permanently subject to 
the Turks, under whose dominion it appears 
to be in a state of gradual decline. 

Dr. Clarke, however, in his recent visit, by 
no means found it to present that aspect of 
desolation which some travellers have reported. 
On obtaining the first view of it in the ap- 
proach from the north, instead of a wretched 
and ruined town, he beheld a flourishing and 
stately metropolis, presenting a magnilicent 
assemblage of domes, towers. palaces,churches, 
and monasteries ; all of which, glittering in 
the sun's rays, shone with inconceivable splen- 
dor. The streets of Jerusalem are cleaner 
than those of any other city of the Levant ; 
but like all of them, are very narrow. The 
houses are lofty, and as no windows appear 
on any of the lower stories, and those above 



WONDERS OP ART. 35 

are latticed, the passage appears to be be- 
tween blank walls. 

The present population is estimated at from 
20 to 30,000, consisting of Arabs, Turks, Jews, 
and Armenians, among which are to be found 
but about 200 Christian families. The city it- 
self is situated between two hills, named Acre 
and Moriah. The walls which surround it 
are said to have a circumference of 4,500 
paces. It has seven gates, of Vv^hich that of 
Damascus to the north, and that of Ephraim 
or Bethlehem to the west, are the most roman- 
tic and picturesque. The walls of the latter 
are high, crenated, and provided with square 
towers from distance to distance. Several of 
its steep and unpaved streets are without in- 
habitants ; and many spacious houses, togeth- 
er with churches and monasteries, have been 
entirely abandoned. 



THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. 

The pyramids of Egypt are well entitled to 
a place among the most interesting curiosities 
in the world. The principal ones stand oppo- 
site Cairo, on the west side of the river Nile. 
They are built of stones, which overleap each 
other, and thus form steps from the bottom to 
the top. The perpendicular height of the lar- 
gest is about 500 feet, and the area of its base 
contains nearly 500,000 square feet, or some- 



S6 WONDERS OF ART. 

tiling more than rleven English acres of ground. 
Some idea may be formed of the cost and la- 
bor in the construction of this pyramid, from 
the fact that thirty years were spent in build- 
ing it, and that 100,000 men were constantly 
employed on the work. 

Such were the famous Egyptian pyramids^ 
which, by their figure as well as size, have 
triumphed over the injuries of time and the 
barbarians. But whatever efforts men make, 
their own nothingness will always appear. 
These pyramids were tombs ; and there is still 
to be seen, in the middle of the largest, an 
empty sepulchre cut out of entire stone, about 
three feet deep and broad, and a little above 
six feet long. Thus all this bustle, all this ex- 
pense, and all the labors of so many thousand 
men, ended in procuring a prince, in this vast 
and almost boundless pile of buildings, a little 
vault six feet in length. 

Besides, the kings who built these pyramids 
had it not in their power to be buried in them, 
and so did not enjoy the sepulchre they had 
built. The public hatred which they incurred, 
by reason of their unheard-of cruelties to llieir 
subjects in laying such heavy tasks upon them, 
occasioned their being interred in some ob- 
scure place, to prevent their bodies from being 
exposed to the fury and vengeance of the po- 
pulace. 

This last circumstance, of which historians 
have taken particular notice, teaches us what 



WONDERS OF ART. 37 

judgment we ought to pass on these edifices, 
so much boasted of by the ancients. It is but 
just to remark and esteem the noble genius 
which the Egyptians had for architecture ; a 
genius that prompted them, from the earliest 
times, and before they could have any models 
to imitate, to aim in all things at the grand 
and magnificent ; and to be intent on real 
beauties, without deviating in the least from a 
noble simplicity, in which the highest perfec- 
tion of the art consists. 

But what idea ought we to form of those 
princes, who considered as something grand 
the raising, by a multitude of hands and by 
the help of money, immense structures, with 
the sole view of rendering their names immor- 
tal ; and who did not scruple to destroy thou- 
sands of their subjects to satisfy their vain- 
glory ! They differed very much from the Ro- 
mans, who sought to immortalize themselves 
by works of a magnificent kind, but, at the 
same time, of public utility. 

Pliny gives us, in a few words, a just idea 
of these pyramids, v/hen he calls them a fool- 
ish and useless ostentation of the wealth of 
Egyptian kings ; and adds, that by a just pun- 
ishment, their memory is buried in oblivion, 
historians not agreeing amongst themselves 
about the names of those who first raised those 
vain monuments. In a word, according to the 
judicious remark of Diodorus, the industry of 
the architects of those pyramids is no less val 

4 



38 WONDERS OF ART. 

uableand pral-eworthy, than the design of the 
Egyptian kings is contemptible and ridiculous. 

But what we should most admire in these 
ancient monuments, is the true and standing 
evidence they give of the skill of the Egyp- 
tians in astronomy ; that is a science which 
seems incapable of being brought to perfection, 
but by a long series of years and a great num- 
ber of observations. It has been found, that 
the four sides of the great pyramid named, 
were turned exactly to the four quarters of the 
world ; and consequently showed the true me- 
ridian of that place. 

Now, as so exact a situation was, in all pro- 
bability, purposely pitched upon by those who 
piled up this huge mass of stones above three 
thousand years ago, it follows, that during so 
long a space of time, there has been no altera- 
tion in the heavens in that respect, or, which 
amounts to the same thing, in the poles of the 
earth or the meridians. 



THE RUINS OF HERCULANEUM. 

This city was, together with Pompeii and 
Stabia, involved in the common ruin occasion- 
ed by the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, in the 
reign of Titus, the Roman emperor. It was 
situated on a point of land stretching into the 
Gulf of Naples, about two miles distant from 
that city, near where the modern towns of Por- 



WONDERS OF ART. 39 

tici and Resini, and the royal palace by which 
they are separated, now stand. The neck of 
land on which it was built, and which has 
since disappeared, formed a small harbor. 

Hence the appellation of Herculis Porticum^ 
the small haven of Hercules, sometimes given 
to Herculaneum, and thence, in all probability, 
the modern name of Portici. The latter being 
situated immediately above some of the exca- 
vations of Herculaneum, the just fear of en- 
dangering its safety by undermining it, is giv- 
en as a principal reason why so little progress 
has been made in the Herculanean researches. 

The discovery of Herculaneum is thus ex- 
plained. At an inconsiderable distance from 
the royal palace of Portici, and close to the 
sea-side, Prince Elbeuf, in the beginning of 
the last century, inhabited an elegant villa. 
To obtain a supply of water, a Vi ell was dug, 
in the year 1730, through the deep crust of 
lava, on which the mansion itself had been 
reared. The laborers, after having completely 
pierced through the lava, which was of con- 
siderable depth, came to a stratum of dry mud. 

This event precisely agrees with the tradi- 
tion relative to Herculaneum, that it was in 
the first instance overwhelmed by a stratum 
of hot mud, which was immediately followed 
by a wide stream of lava. Whether this mud 
was thrown up from Vesuvius, or formed by 
torrents of rain, does not appear to have been 
decided. Within the stratum, the workmen 



40 WONDERS OF ART. 

found three female statues, which were sent 
to Vienna. 

It w^as not until some years after, that the 
researches at Herculaneum were seriously 
and systematically pursued. By continuing 
Elbeufs well, the excavators at once came to 
the theatre, and from that spot carried on 
their further subterraneous investigation. The 
condition of Herculaneum was at that time 
much more interesting, and more worthy the 
notice of the traveller, than it is at present. 

The object of its excavation having unfor- 
tunately been confined to the discovery of 
statues, paintings, and other curiosities, and 
not carried on with a view to lay open the city, 
and thus to ascertain the features of its build- 
ings and streets, most of the latter were again 
filled up with rubbish as soon as they were 
divested of every thing moveable. The mar- 
ble was even torn from the walls of the tem- 
ples. Herculaneum may therefore be said to 
have been overwhelmed a second time by its 
modern discoverers; and the appearance it 
previously presented, can now only be ascer- 
tained from the accounts of those who saw it 
in a more perfect state. Agreeably to them, 
it must at that time have afforded a most in- 
teresting spectacle. 

The theatre was one of the most perfect 
specimens of ancient architecture. It had, 
from the floor upward, eighteen rows of seats, 
and above these, three other rows, which be- 



WONDERS OF ART. 41 

ing covered with a portico seem to have been 
intended for the female part of the audience, 
to screen them from the rays of the sun. It 
was capable of containing between three and 
four thousand persons. Nearly the whole of 
its surface was, as well as the arched walls 
which led to the seats, cased with marble. 

The area, or pit, was floored with thick 
squares of giallo antico, a beautiful marble of 
a yellowish hue. On the top stood a group 
of four bronze horses drawing a car with a 
charioteer, all of exquisite workmanship. The 
pedestal of white marble is still to be seen in 
its place ; but the group itself had been crush- 
ed and broken in pieces by the immense weight 
of lava which fell on it. The fragments hav- 
ing been collected, might easily have been 
brought together again, but having been care- 
lessly thrown into a corner, a part of them 
were stolen, and another portion fused and con- 
verted into busts of their Neapolitan majesties. 

At length it was resolved to make the best 
use of what remained, that is, to convert the 
four horses into one, by taking a fore leg of 
one of them, a hinder leg of another, the head 
of a third, &c. ; and where the breach was 
irremediable, to cast a new piece. To this 
contrivance the bronze horse in the court-yard 
of the Museum of Portici owes its existence ; 
and, considering its patch- work origin, still 
conveys a high idea of the skill of the ancient 
artist. 

4* 



4Si WONDERS OF ART. 

In the forum, which was contiguous to the 
theatre, besides a number of inscriptions, col- 
umns, &c., two beautiful equestrian statues of 
the Balbi family were found. These are of 
white marble, and are deposited in the hall of 
the left wing of the palace at Portici. 

The most important discovery, however, 
was that of a villa at a small distance from 
the forum ; not only on account of the pecu- 
liarity of its plan, but because the greater 
number of the works of art were dug out of 
its precinct ; and more especially because it 
contained a library consisting of more than 
fifteen hundred volumes, which are likewise 
safely deposited in the museum, and which, 
were they legible, would form a great classic 
treasure. 

The villa is conjectured to have belonged 
to one of the Balbi family. Although elegant, 
it was small, and consisted of a ground-floor 
only, like those of Pompeii. Besides a number 
of small closets round an interior hall, it con- 
tained a bathing-room, curiously fitted up with 
marble and water-pipes, and a chapel of a di- 
minutive size, without any window or aper- 
ture for daylight, the walls of which were 
painted with serpents, and within which a 
bronze tripod, filled with cinders and ashes, 
was found standing on the floor. 

The apartment which contained the library 
was fitted up with wooden presses around the 
walls, about six feet in height : a double row 



, WONDERS OF ART. 43 

of presses stood insulated in the middle of the 
room, so as to admit a free passage on every 
side. The wood of which the presses had been 
made was burned to a cinder, and gave way 
at the first touch ; but the volumes, composed 
of a much more perishable substance, the 
Egyptian or Syracusan papyrus, were, al- 
though completely carbonized through the ef- 
fect of the heat, still so far preserved as to ad- 
mit of their removal to a similar set of modern 
presses, provided however with glass doors, in 
the museum. 

In the middle of the garden belonging to 
this villa, was a basin nearly of the size and 
form of the one in the Green Park, having its 
edges faced with stone, and the two narrow 
ends rounded off in a semicircular form. This 
piece of water was surrounded by beds or par- 
terres of various shapes ; and the garden was 
on every side enclosed by a covered walk sup- 
ported by columns. 

Of these columns there were sixty- four, ten 
for each of the shorter, and twenty-two for 
each of the longer sides of the quadrangle : 
they were made of brick, neatly stuccoed over, 
exactly similar to those in the Pompeian bar- 
racks. Each pillar supported one end of a 
vvooden beam, the other extremity of which 
rested on the garden wall, thus forming an 
arbor, probably planted with vines, around 
the whole garden. Under this covered walk, 
several semicircular recesses, which appear 



44 WONDERS OF ART. 

to have served as bathing places, were built. 
The spaces between the pillars were decorated 
with marble busts and bronze statues, alter- 
nately arranged. 

This garden was surrounded by a narrow 
ditch ; and another covered walk, of a consid- 
erable length, led to a circular balcony or 
platform, the ascent to which was by four 
steps, but which overhung the sea about fif- 
teen feet. The floor of the balcony consisted 
of the very beautiful tesselated pavement, 
which now serves as the floor of one of the 
rooms of the Portici museum. From this 
charming spot, the prospect over the whole 
Bay of Naples, including the mountains of 
Sorento, the Island of Capri, ^md Mount Pau- 
silippo, must have been delightful. 



RUINS OF POMPEII. 

A CITY bearing the above name, in Campa- 
nia, formerly celebrated for its commerce, 
was partly destroyed by an earthquake, A. D. 
63, and, together with Herculancum, was buried 
by a stream of lava, or rather a shower of 
ashes, A. D. 79, and was first discovered in 
1748. It lies about twelve miles southeast from 
Naples. Pompeii is said to have been founded 
by Opici, and, at a later period, was in pos- 
session of the Samnites, who, having revolted, 
were replaced by Roman colonists. 



WONDERS OF ART. 45 

Pompeii is a less considerable city than Her- 
culaneum, yet it contained many fine works 
of art, a large theatre, and many handsome 
buildings. The bed of ashes that covered it 
was about eighteen feet in depth. Although 
two thirds are still covered, it is estimated that 
the town was three quarters of a mile in length 
by nearly half a mile in breadth. The walls 
are from eighteen to twenty feet high, and 
tw^elve thick, and contained several main gates, 
of which six have been uncovered. Twenty 
streets, fifteen feet wide, paved with lava, and 
having foot- ways of three feet broad, have also 
been excavated. 

The tracks of the wheels which anciently 
rolled over the pavement are still visible. An 
elevated path runs by the sides of the houses, 
for foot-passengers ; and, to enable them in 
rainy weather to pass more commodiously to 
the opposite side, large flat stones, three of 
which take up the width of the road, were laid 
at a distance from each other. As the car- 
riages, in order to avoid these stones, were 
obliged to use the intermediate spaces, the 
tracks of the wheels are there most visible. 
The whole of the pavement is in good condi- 
tion ; it consists merely of considerable pieces 
of lava, which, however, are not cut, as at the 
present, into squares, and may have been on 
that account the more durable. 

The part which was first cleared, is sup- 
posed to have been the m.ain street of Pompeii ; 



46 WONDERS OF ART. 

but this is much to be doubted, as the houses 
on both sides, with the exception of a few, 
were evidently the habitations of common 
citizens, and were small and provided wath 
booths. The street itself likewise is narrow; 
two carriages only could go abreast ; and it is 
very uncertain whether it ran through the 
whole of the town ; for, from the spot where the 
moderns discontinued digging, to that w^here 
they recommenced, and where the same street 
is supposed to have been again found, a wide 
tract is covered with vineyards, which may 
very well occupy the places of the most splen- 
did streets and markets, still concealed under- 
neath. 

Among the objects w^hich attract particular 
attention, is a booth in which liquors were 
sold, and the marble table within which bears 
the marks of the cups left by the drinkers. 
Next to this is a house, the threshold of w^hich 
is inlaid by a salutation of black stone, as a 
token of hospitality. On entering the habita- 
tions, the visiter is struck by the strangeness 
of their construction. The middle of the house 
forms a square, something like the cross pas- 
sages of a cloister, often surrounded by pillars: 
it is cleanly, and paved with parti-colored mo- 
saic, which has an agreeable effect. 

In the middle is a cooling well ; and on each 
side a little chamber, about ten or twelve feet 
square, but lofty, and painted with a fine red 
or yellow. The floor is of mosaic ; and the 



WONDERS OF ART. 47 

door is made generally to serve as a window, 
there being but one apartment which receives 
light through a thick blue glass. Many of 
these rooms are supposed to have been bed- 
chambers, because there is an elevated broad 
step, on which the bed may have stood, and 
because some of the pictures appear most ap- 
propriate to a sleeping-room. 

Others are supposed to have been dressing- 
rooms, on this account, that on the walls a 
Venus is described decorated by the Graces, 
added to which little flasks and boxes of vari- 
ous descriptions have been found in them. The 
larger of these apartments served for dining- 
rooms, and in some are found suitable accom- 
modations for cold and hot baths. 

Most of the houses consist of one such square 
surrounded by rooms. In a few some decayed 
steps seem to have led to an upper story, which 
is no longer in existence. Some habitations, 
however, probably belonging to the richer and 
more fashionable, are far more spacious. In 
these a first court is often connected with a 
second, and even with a third, by passages ; 
in other respects their arrangements are pretty 
similar to those above described. Many gar- 
lands of flowers and vine branches, and many 
handsome pictures, are still to be seen on the 
walls. 

One of the houses belonged to a statuary, 
whose work-shop is still full of the vestiges of 
his art. Another appears to have been in- 



48 Wonders op art* 

habited by a surgeon, whose profession is 
equally evident from the instruments discover- 
ed in his chamber. A large country house 
near the gate undoubtedly belonged to a very 
wealthy man, and would, in fact, still invite 
inhabitants within its walls. It is very exten- 
sive, stands against a hill, and has many stories. 
Its tinely decorated rooms are unusually spa- 
cious ; and it has airy terraces, from which 
you look down into a pretty garden, that has 
been now again planted with flowers. 

In the middle of this garden is a large fish- 
pond, and near that an ascent from which, on 
two sides, six pillars descend. The hinder 
pillars are the highest, the middle somewhat 
lower, and the front the lowest ; they appear, 
therefore, rather to have propped a sloping 
roof, than to have been destined for an arbor. 
A covered passage, resting on pillars, encloses 
the garden on three sides ; it was painted, and 
probably served in rainj^ weather as an agree- 
able walk. Beneath is a fine arched cellar, 
which receives air and light by several open- 
ings from without; consequently its atmosphere 
is so pure, that in the hottest part of summer 
it is always refreshing. 

A number of large wine-vessels are to be 
seen here, still leaning against the wall, as 
the butler left them when he carried up the 
last goblet of wine for his master. Had the 
inhabitants of Pompeii preserved these vessels 
with stoppers, wine might still have been found 



WONDERS OF AUt'. 49 

in them ; but as it was, the stream of* ashes 
running in, of coarse forced out the wine. 
More than twenty human skeletons of fugitives, 
who thought to save themselves here under 
ground, but who experienced a tenfold more 
cruel death than those sutTered who were in 
the open air, were found in this cellar. 

The destiny of the Pompeians must have 
been dreadfuL It was not a sLream of fire 
that encompassed their abodes ; they could 
then have sought refuge in flight* Neither 
did an earthquake swallow them up ; sudden 
suffocation would then have spared them the 
pangs of a lingering death. A rain of ashes 
buried them alive by degrees. We will read 
the delineation of Pliny :— •" A darkness suddenly 
overspread the country ; not like the darkness 
of a moonless night ; but like that of a closed 
room, in which the light is of a sudden extin- 
guished. Women screamed, children moaned? 
men cried. Here, children were anxiously 
calling their parents ; and there, parents were 
seeking their children, or husbands their wives; 
all recognised each other only by their cries* 
The former lamented their own fate, and the 
latter that of those dearest to them. Many 
washed for death, from the fear of dying* Many 
called on the gods for assistance ; others de- 
spaired of the assistance of the gods, and thought 
this the last eternal night of the world. Act* 
ual dangers were magnified by unreal terrors- 
The earth continued to shake, and men, half 

5 



60 WONDERS OF AHT^ 

distracted, to reel about, exaggerating their 
own fears, and those of others, by terrifying 
predictions." 

Before the above-mentioned country house 
was still a male skeleton, standing with a dish 
in his hand ; and, as he wore on his finger one 
of those rings which were allowed to be worn 
by Roman knights only, he is supposed to have 
been the master of the house, who had just 
opened the back garden gate with the intent 
of flying, when the shower overwhelmed him. 
Several skeletons were found in the very pos- 
ture in which they had breathed their last, 
without having been forced by the agonies of 
death to drop the things they had in their hands. 
This leads to a conjecture, that the thick mass 
of ashes must have come down all at once, in 
such immense quantities as instantly to cover 
them. It cannot otherwise be imagined how 
the fugitives could all have been fixed, as it 
were by a charm, in their position ; and in this 
manner their destiny was the less dreadful, 
seeing that death suddenly converted them into 
motionless statues, and thus was stripped of all 
the horrors with which the fears of the suffer- 
ers had clothed him in imagination. But what 
then must have been the pitiable condition of 
those who had taken refuge in the buildings 
and cellars ? Buried in the thickest darkness, 
they were secluded from every thing but lin- 
gering torment ; and who can paint to himself 
without shuddering, a slow dissolution ap- 



WONDERS OF ART. 51 

proaching, amid all the agonies of body and of 
mind? The soul recoils from the contempla- 
tion of such images. 

Two theatres, the smaller one particularly, 
are in an excellent state of preservation. The 
structure of this one is such as was usually 
adopted by the ancients, and is well deserving 
of modern imitation, as it affords the spectators 
commodious seats, a free view of the stage, 
and facility of hearing. Although sufficiently 
large to contain tv/o thousand persons, the 
plebeians, standing in a broad gallery at the 
top, were quite as able to see all that was 
passing on the stage as the magistrate in his 
marble balcony. 

In this gallery the arrangements for spread- 
ing the sailcloth over the spectators are still 
visible. The stage itself is very broad, as it 
has no side walls ; and appears less deep than 
it really is. A wall runs across it, and cuts 
off just as much room as is necessary for the ac- 
commodation of the performers. But this wall 
has three very broad doors ; the middle one is 
distinguished by its height, and the space be- 
hind it is still deeper than in front. If these 
doors, as may be conjectured, always stood 
open, the stage was in fact large, and afforded^ 
besides, the advantage of being able to display 
a double scenery : if, for example, the scene in 
front was that of a street, there might have 
been behind a free prospect into the open field. 

The smaller of the theatres is to the right, and 



62 WONDERS OF ART. 

is called the covered theatre, because it was 
so constructed, that, by the means of canvass 
awnings, the spectators were defended from 
the sun and rain. A door through the wall 
leads to the different galleries, and to the open 
space in the centre, resembling the pit of a 
modern theatre. The interior is beautifully- 
neat ; and, with the exception of the spoliation 
of the marble slabs, removed to the palace at 
Portici, with which the whole of the inside, not 
excepting the seats, had been covered, in ex- 
cellent preservation. On each side are the 
seats for the magistrates ; the orchestra, as in 
modern theatres, is in front of the stage ; and 
the latter, with its brick wings, is very shallow. 
This theatre was calculated to contain about 
two thousand spectators. 

From its level a staircase leads to an emi- 
nence on which several public buildings are 
situated. The most conspicuous of these is a 
small temple said to have been dedicated to 
Isis, and having a secret passage, perforated in 
two places, whence the priests are supposed to 
have delivered to the deluded multitude the 
oracles of that deity. 

Within a paved court is an altar of a round 
shape, on the one side, and on the other side a 
well. A cistern, with four apertures, was 
placed at a small distance, to facilitate the 
procuring of water. In this court, sacrifices, 
and other holy rites arc conjectured to have 
taken place, various utensils for sacrifice, such 



WONDERS OF ART. 53 

as lamps, tripods, &:c., having been found when 
the place was first excavated. One of the 
tripods is of the most admirable workmanship. 

On each of the three legs, a beautiful sphinx, 
with an unusual headdress, is placed, probably 
in allusion to the hidden meanings of the ora- 
cles which were delivered in the above-men- 
tioned temple. The hoop in which the basin 
for the coals was sunk, is elegantly decorated 
with rams' heads connected by garlands of 
flowers ; and within the basin, which is of 
baked earth, the very cinders left from the last 
sacrifice, (nearly two thousand years ago,) are 
seen as fresh as if they had been the remains 
of yesterday's fire ! * 

From the above court, you enter on a some- 
what larger, with a stone pulpit in the centre, 
and stone seats near the walls. The spot, 
therefore, was either the auditory of a philoso- 
pher, or the place where the public orators 
pleaded in the presence of the people. Every 
thing here is in the highest order and preserva- 
tion. 

The great amphitheatre proudly rears its 
walls over every other edifice on the same 
elevated spot. It is a stupendous structure, 
and has twenty-four rows of seats, the circum- 
ference of the lowest of which is about 750 
feet. It is estimated to have contained about 
30,000 spectators. The upper walls are much 
injured, having partially projected above 
ground long before the discovery of Pompeii, 

5* 



M WONDERS OF ART. 

A corn-field leads to the excavated upper end 
of the high street, which consists of a narrow 
road for carts, with foot pavements on each 
side. The middle is paved with large blocks 
of marble, and the ruts of the wheels proclaim 
its antiquity, even at the time of its being over- 
whelmed. The foot-paths are elevated about 
a foot and a half from the level of the carriage 
road. The houses on each side, whether shops 
or private buildings, have not any claim to 
external elegance ; they consist of a ground- 
floor only, and, with the exception of the door, 
have not any opening towards the street. 

The windows of the private houses look into 
an inner square court, and are in general very 
high. The apartments themselves are, with 
the exception of one in each house, which 
probably served as a drawing-room, both low 
and diminutive. In point of decoration they 
are neat, and, in many instances, elegant ; the 
floors generally consist of figured pavements, 
either in large stones of various colors, regu- 
larly cut and systematically disposed, or are 
formed of beautiful mosaic, with a fanciful 
border, and an animal or figure in the centre. 

The walls of the apartments are equally,* if 
not still more deserving attention. They are 
painted, either in compartments, exhibiting 
some mythological or historical event, or simply 
colored over with a light ground, adorned with 
a border and perhaps an elegant little vignette, 
in the centre or at equal distances. But few 



WONDERS OF ART. 55 

of the historical paintings now exist in Pom- 
peii ; for wherever a wall was found to con- 
tain a tolerable picture, it was removed and 
deposited in the museum at Portici. To effect 
this, the greatest care and ingenuity were re- 
quired, so as to peel off, by the means of saw- 
ing pieces of wall, twenty and more square 
feet in extent, without destroying the picture. 
This, however, was not a modern invention ; 
for, among the excavated remains of Stabiae, 
the workmen came to an apartment contain- 
ing paintings which had been separated by the 
ancients themselves from a wall, with the ob- 
vious intent of their being introduced in another 
place. This was, however, prevented by the 
ruin of the city ; and the paintings, therefore, 
were found leaning against the wall of the 
apartment. 



POMPEY'S PILLAR. 

The pillar of Pompey, as it is generally called, 
is situated about a quarter of a league from 
the southern gate at Alexandria in Egypt. It 
is composed of red granite. The capital is 
Corinthian, ornamented with palm-leaves, and 
not indented. The shaft and the upper mem- 
ber of the base are of one piece, ninety feet 
long, and nine in diameter. The base, which 
is a square block of marble, sixty feet in cir- 
cumference, rests on two layers of stone, bound 



66 WONDERS OF ART. 

together with lead. The whole column is 114 
feet high, perfectly well polished, and only a 
little shivered on the eastern side. 

Nothing can equal the majesty of this monu- 
ment ; seen from a distance, it overtops the 
town, and serves as a signal for vessels ; and 
on a nearer approach, it produces astonish- 
ment mingled with awe. One can never be 
tired with admiring the beauty of the capital, 
the length of the shaft, and the extraordinary 
simplicity of the pedestal; although the latter 
has been rather damaged by the instruments 
of travellers, who were anxious to possess a 
relic of this antiquity : and one of the volutes 
of the column was immaturely brought down, 
in the year 1781, by a prank of some English 
captains, which is thus related by Mr. Irwin. 

These jolly tars of Neptune had been push- 
ing about one of the ships in the harbor, until 
a strange freak entered into one of their brains. 
The eccentricity of the thought occasioned it 
immediately to be adopted, and its apparent 
impossibility was but a spur for putting it into 
execution. The boat was ordered, and with 
proper implements for the attempt these enter- 
prising heroes pushed ashore, to drink a bowl 
of punch on the top of Pompey's pillar ! At 
the spot they arrived, and many cdYitrivances 
were proposed to accomplish the desired point. 
But their labor was vain, and they began to 
despair of success, when the genius who struck 
out the frolic happily suggested the means of 



WONDERS OF ART. 57 

performing it. A man was dispatched to the 
city for a paper kite. 

The inhabitants were by this time apprized 
of what was going ibrward, and flocked in 
crowds to be witnesses of the address and bold- 
ness of the English. The governor of Alex- 
andria was told that these seamen were about 
to pull down Pompey's pillar. But whether 
he gave them credit for their respect to the 
Roman warrior, or to the Turkish government, 
he left them to themselves and politely an- 
swered — that the English were too great pa- 
triots to injure the remains of Pompey. He 
loiew little, however, of the disposition of the 
people who were engaged in this undertaking; 
for had the Turkish empire risen in opposition, 
it would not perhaps at that moment have de- 
terred them. 

The kite was brought, and flown so directly 
over the pillar, that when it fell on the other 
side, the string lodged upon the capital. The 
chief obstacle was now overcome. A two 
inch rope was tied to one end of the string, 
and drawn over the pillar by the end to which 
the kite was affixed. By this rope one of the 
seamen ascended to the top ; and, in less than 
an hour, a kind of shroud was constructed, by 
which the whole company went up and drank 
their punch, amid the shouts of the astonished 
multitude. To the eye below, the capital of 
the pillar does not appear capable of holding 
more than one man upon it ; but our seamen 



58 WONDERS OF ART. 

found it could contain no less than eight per- 
sons very conveniently. 

It is astonishing that no accident befell these 
madcaps, in a situation so elevated that it would 
have turned a landman giddy in his sober sen- 
ses. The only detriment which the pillar re- 
ceived was the loss of the volute before men- 
tioned, which came down with a thundering 
sound, and was carried to England by one of 
the captains, as a present to a lady who com- 
missioned him for a piece of the pillar. The 
discovery which they made amply compensa- 
ted for this mischief, as, without their evidence, 
the world would not have known at this hour, 
that there was originally a statue on this pil- 
lar, one foot and an ankle of which are still 
remaining. The statue must have been of a 
gigantic size, to have appeared of a man's 
proportion at so great a height. 

There are circumstances in this story which 
might give it an air of fiction, were it not de- 
monsti'ated beyond all doubt. Besides the tes- 
timonies of many eye-witnesses, the adventur- 
ers themselves have left a token of the fact by 
the initials of their names, which are very 
legible in black paint just beneath the capital. 

Learned men and travellers have made many 
fruitless attempts to discover in honor of what 
prince this stately pillar was erected ; for, not- 
withstanding its common appellation, it could 
not have been raised to the memory of Pom- 
pey, as neither Strabo nor Diodorus Siculus 



WONDERS OP ART. 59 

has spoken of it. Abulfeda, in his Descrip- 
tion of Egypt, calls it the pillar of Severus ; 
and history informs us, that this emperor visited 
the city of Alexandria ; that he granted a sen* 
ate to its inhabitants, who, until that time, 
under the subjection of a single Roman magis- 
trate, had lived without any national council ; 
and that he changed several laws in their fa- 
vor. 

This column, therefore, M. Savary concludes 
to have been erected by the inhabitants as a 
mark of their gratitude to Severus. And in a 
Greek inscription, now half effaced, but visible 
on the west side when the sun shines upon it, 
he supposes the name of Severus to have been 
preserved. He further observes, that this was 
not the only monument erected to that empe- 
ror by the gratitude of the Alexandrians ; for 
there is still in the midst of the ruins of Anti- 
noe a magnificent pillar, the inscription of 
which is still remaining, and proves that it 
was dedicated to Alexander Severus. It has, 
however, been lately asserted that the above- 
mentioned inscription on what is vulgarly 
called Pompey's pillar has been deciphered, 
and proves that the column was erected in 
honor of Diocletian by the then prefect of 
Egypt. 



00 Wonders of ar% 



THE COLISEUM OF ROME. 

On approaching the majestic ruins of this 
vast amphitheatre, the most stupendous work 
of the kind antiquity can boast, a sweet and 
gently-moving astonishment is the first sensa- 
tion which seizes the beholder ; and soon af- 
terwards the grand spectacle swims before 
him like a cloud. To give an adequate idea 
of this sublime building, is a task to which the 
pen is unequal : it must be seen to be duly ap- 
preciated. It is upwards of 1600 feet in cir- 
cumference, and of such an elevation, that it 
has been justly observed by a writer, Ammia- 
nus, " the human eye scarcely measures its 
height.^' 

Nearly the one-half of the external circuit 
still remains, consisting of four tiers of arcades, 
adorned with columns of four orders, the Do- 
ric, Ionian, Corinthian, and Composite. Its 
extent may, as well as its elevation, be esti- 
mated by the number of spectators it contained, 
amounting, according to some accounts, to 
eighty thousand, and agreeably to others, to 
one hundred thousand. 

Thirty thousand captive Jews are said to 
have been engaged by Vespasian, whose name 
it occasionally bears, in the construction of 
this vast edifice ; and they have not discredit- 
ed their forefathers, the builders of Solomon's 
temple, by the performance. It was not finish- 
ed, however, until the reign of his son Titus, 



WONDERS OP ART. 61 

who, on the first day of its being opened, in- 
troduced into the arena not less than 5,000, or, 
according to Dio Cassius, 9,000 wild beasts, 
between whom and the primitive Christians 
held captive by the Romans battles were 
fought. 

At the conclusion of this cruel spectacle, the 
whole place was put under water, and two 
fleets, named the Corcyrian and the Corinthian, 
represented a naval engagement? To render 
the vapor from such a multitude of persons 
less noxious, sweet-scented water, and fre- 
quently wine mixed with saffron, was shower- 
ed down from a grated work above on the 
heads of the spectators. 

The Roman emperors who succeeded Titus 
were careful of the preservation of this superb 
edifice ; even the voluptuous Heliogabalus 
caused it to be repaired after a great fire. 
The rude Goths, who sacked the city of Rome, 
were contented with despoiling it of its inter- 
nal ornaments, but respected the structure it- 
self. The Christians, however, through an 
excess of zeal, have not been satisfied with al- 
lowing it gradually to decay. Pope Paul IL 
had as much of it levelled as was necessary 
to furnish materials for building the palace of 
St. Mark, and his pernicious example was im* 
itated by Cardinal Riario, in the construction 
of what is now called the chancery. Lastly^ 
a portion of it was employed by Pope Paul IIL 
in the erection of the palace Farnese. 

6 



62 WONDERS *0F ART. 

Notwithstanding all these dilapidations, 
there still exists enough of it to inspire the 
spectator with awe. Immense masses appear 
fastened to and upon one another wdthout any 
mortar or cement ; and these alone, from their 
structure, are calculated for a duration of 
many thousaYids of years. Occasionally, where 
the destroyers have not effectually attained 
their object, the half-loosened masses appear 
to be holdeft in the air by some invisible pow- 
er ; for the wide interstices among them leave 
no other support than their joints, which seem 
every moment as if about to yield unavoidably 
to the superior force of gravitation. ''They 
will fall," "they must fall," ''they are falling," 
is, and has been, the language of all beholders 
during the vast periods through which this 
stupendous edifice has thus hung together in 
the air. 



AQUEDUCTS. 

An aqueduct is an artificial channel, made 
for conveying water from one place to an- 
other, without employing any other principle 
of mechanics than this, that a body will de- 
scend along an inclined plane, or from a high- 
er to a lower level. Hence it is almost un- 
necessary to observe, that an aqueduct must 
have a continued slope from its source to the 
place for which the water is destined. 



WONDERS OF ART. 63 

If there is not a sufficient natural collection 
of water at the source, the supply must be in- 
creased by artificial cuts or drains ; and the 
stream may also be augmented in its course 
from contiguous springs, by means of cuts 
branching out from points in the side of the 
aqueduct. It may sometimes be expedient, too, 
to conduct it in a circuitous direction, in order 
to obtain more abundant collections of water, 
either from springs or artificial excavations, 
than would be procured by conducting it in a 
more direct course. 

To receive such supplies in the most effec- 
tual manner, the channel should be left with- 
out any building. In that state, however, it 
is liable to be worn by the action of the cur- 
rent, the course of which is at last obstructed 
by accumulations of sand and mud in particu- 
lar places ; though frequency of necessary re- 
pairs, in such cases, may be diminished by ma- 
king, at intervals, large pits, in which the sand 
and mud may deposite themselves. 

If the collection at the source is so great as 
to render all further supplies unnecessary, the 
channel should then be well built of stone or 
brick ; and if it is also wished to be free from 
rain-water, which after having fallen would 
run into the channel, frequently in a muddy 
state, the aqueduct must be covered above. 
If it is necessary to cross a valley, the valley 
must be built up. The building for this pur- 
pose will answer best in the form of an arch, 



64 WONDERS OF ART. 

or a succession of arches, and indeed in most 
cases it is absolutely necessary to construct it 
in that manner, particularly when the valley 
has a river running through it. It is chiefly 
in the construction of the arches that the 
ancient aqueducts excite our astonishment. 
When the valley is deep, several rows of 
arches may be made one above another. 

When it is necessary to pass a mountain, 
the aqueduct may either be carried round it, 
or through it by a perforation. In such cases, 
it is easy to see that the construction of aque- 
ducts must be attended with enormous ex- 
pense ; and in modern times, instead of allow- 
ing the water to flow in an open channel, it is 
found more economical to employ the hydrau- 
lic principle ; that however the channel may 
rise or fall, water will continue to run in it, 
provided it be enclosed on all sides, and no- 
where carried higher than the source. 

The Romans were either ignorant of this 
principle, or thought that pipes would not af- 
ford a sufficient supply of water for all the 
purposes they had in view. The quantity of 
this necessary article of life for the table, as 
well as for baths and fish-ponds, gave rise to 
aqueducts of astonishing grandeur and mag- 
nificence, to which even emperors were proud 
to attach their names. Three of these still 
exist, and supply with water the inhabitants 
of modern Rome. 

The remains of Roman aqueducts may be 



WONDERS OF ART. 05 

traced in other parts of the world ; one of the 
most splendid of these, is that of Segovia in 
Spain, of which 159 arches, joined without 
mortar, still remain to attest its ancient gran- 
deur. The most considerable aqueduct of 
modern times, is that which was built near 
Maintenon by Louis XIV. for conveying to 
Versailles the waters of the river Eure. Its 
length 7000 fathoms, its height 2560, and the 
number of its arches 242, arranged in three 
stories. 



THE APPIAN WAY. 

This was an ancient highway from Rome 
through Capua to Brundusium, between 330 
and 350 miles long. Appius Claudius and 
Ccscus the Censor, A. U. C. 441, carried it 
from the Porta Capena to Capua ; Julius 
Caesar from Capua to Benevento : and Augus- 
tus thence to Brundusium. It was laid with 
hard stone brought from a great distance, 
large, and squared so exactly as to need no 
cement ; and it was sufficiently wide for sev- 
eral wagons to go abreast. Statins calls it the 
queen of roads. Its course is described by 
Horace, Strabo, and Antonine. Caius Grac- 
chus placed stones along it, called cippi and 
termini, to mark the miles, afford foot passen- 
gers resting seats, and enable equestrian tra- 

6# 



fitt WONDERS OF ART. 

vellers to mount, there being no stirrups used. 
Great part of this road still remains entire. 



THE CHINESE WALL. 

This stupendous wall, which extends across 
the northern boundary of the Chinese empire, 
is deservedly ranked among the grandest la- 
bors of art. It is conducted over the summits 
of high mountains, several of which have an 
elevation of not less than 5225 feet, (nearly a 
mile,) across deep valleys, and over wide rivers, 
by means of arches ; in many parts it is doubled 
or trebled, to command important passes ; and 
at the distance of nearly every hundred yards 
is a tower or massive bastion. Its extent is 
computed at 1500 miles; but in some parts, 
where less danger is apprehended, it is not 
equally strong or complete, and towards the 
northwest consists merely of a strong rampart 
of earth. 

Near Koopekoo it is twenty-five feet in height, 
and the top about fifteen feet thick ; some of 
the towers, which are square, are forty-eight 
feet high, and about forty feet in width. The 
stone employed in the foundation, angles, &c. 
is a strong gray granite ; but the materials for 
the greater part consist of bluish bricks, and 
the mortar is remarkably pure and white. 

The mass of matter in this stupendous fabric 
is so enormous, that, according to the calcula- 



WONDERS OF ART. 67 

tion of Mr. Barrow, supposing the dimensions 
throughout to be nearly the same as where it 
was crossed by the British embassy, the ma- 
terials of all the dwelling-houses in Great Bri- 
tain are scarcely equivalent to it, in solid con- 
tent. The same writer observes, that the whole 
of the masonry and brick-work in London does 
not exceed the quantity contained in the massy 
towers of brick and stone, exclusive of the wall 
itself. The foundation consists of large square 
stones laid in mortar ; and the top is paved 
with flat stones, and is of such breadth in many 
places, that six horsemen can ride abreast upon 
it. 

The era of the construction of this great 
barrier, which has been and will continue to 
be the wonder and admiration of ages, is con- 
sidered by Sir George Staunton as having been 
absolutely ascertained ; and he asserts that it 
has existed for two thousand years. In this 
assertion he appears to have followed Du Halde, 
who informs us that " this prodigious work 
was constructed two iiundred and fifteen years 
before the birth of Christ, by order of the first 
emperor of the family of Tsin, to protect three 
large provinces from the irruptions of the Tar- 
tars." 

However, in the history of China, contained 
in his first volume, he ascribes this erection to 
the second emperor of the dynasty of Tsin, 
named Chi Hoang Ti ; and the date immedi- 
ately preceding the narrative of this construe- 



68 WONDERS OF ART. 

tion is the year 137 before the birth of Christ. 
Hence suspicions may arise, not only concern- 
ing the epoch when this work was undertaken, 
but also relatively to the purity and precision 
of the Chinese annals in general. Mr. Bell, 
Avho resided some time in China, and whose 
travels are deservedly esteemed for the ac- 
curacy of their information, assures us that 
this wall was built about the year 1160, by 
one of the emperors, to prevent the frequent 
incursions of the Monguls, whose numerous 
cavalry used to ravage the provinces, and ef- 
fect their escape before an army could be as- 
sembled to oppose them. 

Renaudot observes that this wall is not men- 
tioned by any oriental geographer whose wri- 
tings boast a higher antiquity than three hun- 
dred years ; and it is surprising that it should 
have escaped Marco Paulo, who, admitting 
that he entered China by a different route, can 
hardly be supposed, during his long residence 
in the north of China, and in the country of 
the Monguls, to have remained ignorant of so 
stupendous a work. Amid these difficulties, it 
may be reasonably conjectured, that similar 
modes of defence had been adopted in differ- 
ent ages ; and that the ancient rude barrier, 
having fallen into decay, was replaced, per- 
haps after the invasion of Singis, by the pres- 
ent erection, which, even from its state of pre- 
servation, can scarcely aspire to a very remote 
antiquity. 



WONDERS OF ART. 69 



BALLOONS. 



No discovery has ever been made, which 
drew after it a more general admiration, or 
excited more extravagant hopes of utility to 
man, than that of aerostation. It was no sooner 
announced, than already in the imagination of 
many, countries w^ere connected, and com- 
mercial intercourse maintained, with unheard- 
of advantages, while philosophy was to receive 
vast treasures of new facts to extend her bor- 
ders. How few of these great expectations, 
after a lapse of more than thirty years, have 
been realized ; and how little has been added 
to the real knowledge or convenience of life, 
will be discovered from a review of the most 
interesting facts that the various voyages which 
have been performed have brought to light. 
Let it, at the same time, be duly observed, that 
the art is still in its infancy, and that the inti- 
mate, though not always soon discovered, con- 
nection between one fact or one branch of 
knowledge and another, equally forbids us to 
consider in vain the exertions already made, 
or those which may yet be required, before 
any decisive advantages are derived from 
aerostation. 

Of the various circumstances observed by 
aeronauts during their voyages, when the ap- 
prehension of their safety has ceased, none 
impresses them so strongly as the stillness that 



70 W0NDER3 OF ART. 

reigns around ; with some few exceptions they 
hear no wind, whatever may be its violence, 
nor perceive their motion, whatever may be its 
rapidity. To account for this, it must be con- 
sidered that the air is, with respect to them, 
at rest, for they move at the same rate with it. 
It is also remarkable that they never experi- 
ence any sickness or giddiness. In one instance, 
the aeronaut, after his descent, was affected 
with a temporary deafness, but the wet and 
cold which he had experienced, would proba- 
bly have had the same effect upon him in a 
terrestrial journey. Difficulty of respiration 
has ever been an object of notice. 

Of all methods of travelling, that in a bal- 
loon appears to people in general to be the 
most unsafe ; but this is a conclusion drawn 
from a cursory view of the subject ; the acci- 
dents which have happened, particularly those 
which have terminated fatally, are extremely 
few in number, and may be attributed to the 
want of precautions which are easily observed : 
we have seen even that a rent of 50 feet long, 
in a Montgolfier, produced no disaster. It 
should also not be omitted, that voyages have 
been performed in all weathers, and at all sea- 
sons of the year, and that lightning, which had 
been dreaded as a potent enemy, has never in- 
terposed : upon the whole, it appears probable, 
that a voyage in a balloon is not more likely to 
endanger the personal safety of an individual, 
than a voyage from England to Ireland on the sea* 



WONDERS OF ART. 71 

The longest aeronautic excursion ever taken 
was by Blanchard and Chevalier de FEpinard, 
from Lisle ; they traversed a distance of 300 
miles. The greatest height ever attained in 
this way, appears to have been by Morreau 
and Bertrand, who, from Dijon, ascended to 
the height of 13,000 feet. 

The ascending power of a balloon is equal to 
the weight by which it is lighter than an equal 
bulk of common air. Every cubic foot of in- 
flammable air may be considered equal to 3^ 
drachms avoirdupois, which is about one-sixth 
of the weight of common air. Hence, if the 
capacity of a balloon be such that it contains 
12,000 cubical feet of this gas, its ascending 
power may be estimated at 12,000 ounces ; and 
therefore the aeronaut, with the boat, and all 
other appendages, must weigh less than this. 
An inflammable air-balloon, if twenty feet in 
diameter, will just suffice for a single person. 

In a rarefied air-balloon, or Montgolfier, the 
air cannot be expected to be above one-third 
lighter than common air ; and a machine of 
this sort must therefore be in that proportion 
larger than the other, to have an equal ascend- 
ing power. 

To witness the flight of a large balloon, has 
an eff'ect upon the mind as difficult to describe 
as it is impossible not to feel. So spacious a 
globe, with the magnificence of the decorations^ 
excites admiration ; the apparently precarious 
situation of the adventurers, raises apprehen- 



72 WONDERS OF ART. 

sion ; a machine of such extraordinary dimen- 
sions, majestically making its way through a 
medium which is incapable of supporting a 
feather; impressions from all these sources com- 
bine to form a mingled sentiment of the deep- 
est interest, unlike that produced by any other 
exhibition of art. Many have not been able 
to bear the spectacle without shedding tears, 
others have involuntarily lifted their suppliant 
hands to heaven, or fallen upon their knees ; 
several have fainted, and at Lunardi's first as- 
cent, a delicate female was so overcome by her 
feelings that she died upon the spot. 



THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

Of the several fortresses in Great Britain, 
the most remarkable is the Tower of London, 
situated on the east side of that city, near the 
bank of the Thames. It was anciently a royal 
palace, and consisted of no more than what is 
now called the White Tower, which appears 
to have been first marked out by William the 
Conqueror, in the year 107G, and completed by 
his son William Rufus, who, in 1098, surround- 
ed it with walls, and a broad deep ditch. Sev- 
eral succeeding princes made additions to it, 
and king Edward 111. built the church. In the 
year 1638 the White Tower was rebuilt ; and 
since the restoration of king Charles 11. it has 



WONDERS OF ART. 73 

been thoroughly repaired, and a great number 
of additional buildings made to it. 

At present, besides the White Tower, here 
are the offices of ordnance, of the mint, of the 
keepers of the records, the jewel office, the 
Spanish armory, the horse armory, the new 
or small armory, barracks for the soldiers, 
and several handsome houses ; so that the 
Tower of London has at present more the ap- 
pearance of a town than a fortress. Upon the 
wharf is a line of about sixty pieces of cannon, 
which are fired upon state holydays. On this 
side of the Tower the ditch is narrow, and over 
it is a draw-bridge ; under the tower-wall, on 
the same side, is a water-gate, commonly call- 
ed Traitor's Gate, because it had been cus- 
tomary to convey traitors and other state pris- 
oners through it by water, to and from the 
Tower. 

Parallel to the wharf, upon the walls, is a 
platform seventy yards in length, called the 
Ladies' Line, whence there is a fine prospect 
of the shipping, and the river Thames. From 
this line there is a walk round the Tower walls, 
on which are three batteries distinguished by 
the names of the Devil's Battery, the Stone 
Battery, and the Wooden Battery, each of 
which is mounted with several pieces of brass 
cannon. 

The principal entrance to the Tower is by 
two gates, one within the other, on the west 
side, both large enough to admit carriages, and 

7 



74 WONDERS OP ART- 

parted by a strong stone bridge, built over the 
ditch. 

The principal officers of the Tower are a 
constable, a lieutenant, and a deputy-lieuten- 
ant. 

Within the outer gate is the Lion Tower, in 
which is a fine collection of wild beasts, con- 
sisting of lions and lionesses, leopards, tigers, 
apes, jackals, and other wild animals, together 
with a great variety of birds : these animals 
are all regularly fed, and carefully attended. 

In the first story of the White Tower is an 
armory for the sea-service, containing various 
sorts of arms, curiously laid up, for above ten 
thousand seamen ; and the upper stories are 
filled with arms and other warlike instruments, 
as spades, shovels, pickaxes, and chevaux-de- 
frise. 

Near the southwest angle of the White 
Tower is the Spanish armory, being the de- 
pository of the spoils of the Spanish armada, 
fitted out by Philip II. of Spain, to invade Eng- 
land in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It con- 
sisted of 132 ships, of which scarcely 70 re- 
turned home ; and of 30,000 troops on board, 
of which 20,000 were either killed, drowned, 
or made prisoners in England. The trophies 
preserved here of this memorable victory are 
as follows : — A Spanish battle-axe, with a 
pistol in the handle and a match-lock ; the 
Spanish general's halberd, covered with velvet, 
the nails are double gilt, and on the top is the 



WONDERS OF ART. 75 

pope's head curiously engraven. An engine 
called the Spanish morniirg-star, from its fig- 
ure, which is that of a star. Of this kind of 
engine there were many thousands on board, 
all with poisoned points, designed to strike at 
the English in case they ventured to board the 
Spanish fleet. Thumb-screws, of which there 
were several chests full on board, intended to 
extort a confession from the English where 
their money was hid. A Spanish poll-axe, 
used in boarding of ships. Spanish halberds, 
or spears, some of which are curiously engraved, 
and inlaid with gold. Spanish spaders, or long- 
swords, poisoned at the points. Spanish cravats, 
consisting of engines of torture, made of iron, and 
put on board to lock the feet, arms, and heads 
together, of such as the Spaniards called Eng- 
lish heretics. Bilboes, being instruments also 
made of iron for yoking the English prisoners 
two-and-two. Spanish shot, of which there 
are four different sorts — spike- shot, star-shot, 
chain-shot, and link-shot, all admirably con- 
trived, as well for the destruction of the masts 
and rigging of ships, as for sweeping the men 
off the decks. The banner, with a crucifix on 
it, which was to have been carried before the 
Spanish general. An uncommon piece of arms, 
consisting of a pistol in a shield, contrived in 
such a manner that the pistol might be fired, 
and the body covered at the same time ; it is 
to be fired by a match-lock, and the sight of 
the enemy taken through a little grate in the 



76 WONDERS OF ART. 

shield, which is pistol-proof. The Spanish 
ranceur, made in drfferent forms, and intended 
either to kill the men on horseback, or to pull 
them off their horses ; and on one of them is a 
piece of silver coin, which the Spaniards in- 
tended to have made current in England. The 
Spanish officers' lances, finely engraved and 
gilt. The common soldiers' pikes, eighteen 
feet in length, pointed with long sharp spikes, 
and shod with iron. The Spanish general's 
shield, which was to have been carried before 
him as an ensign of honor ; upon which are 
depicted, in most curious workmanship, the la- 
bors of Hercules. 

Here also are deposited several Danish and 
Saxon clubs, a sort of weapons which the 
Danes and Saxons are said to have used in 
their conquests of England ; an instrument 
called King Henry VIlI.'s walking-staff', with 
three match-lock pistols in it, and coverings to 
keep the charges dry ; a large wooden cannon, 
called Policy, because, as is said, when King 
Henry Vllt. besieged Boulogne, the roads being 
impassable for heavy cannon, he caused a 
number of these wooden ones to be made, and 
mounted on proper batteries before the town, 
as if real cannon, which so terrified the French 
commandant, that he gave up the place with- 
out firing a shot ; and the axe with which Anne 
BuUen, the mother of Queen Elizabeth, and 
the Earl of Essex, the favorite of Queen Eliza- 
beth, were beheaded. 



WONDERS OF ART. 77 

The other curiosities in this place are, a 
train of little cannon, neatly mounted on proper 
carriages, being a present from the foundry of 
London to King Charles I. when a child, to 
assist him in learning the art of gunnery; 
weapons made with the blades of scythes, 
fixed straight to the ends of poles, and taken 
from the Duke of Monmouth's party at the 
battle of Sedgmoor, in the reign of James II. ; 
the partisans that were carried at the funeral 
of King William III. ; and a model of an ad- 
mirable machine, the design of which was 
brought from Italy, by Sir Thomas Lombe, at 
the hazard of his life. 

The latter object of attention is a mill for 
the manufacture of silk, and was first erected 
in the year 1734, by Sir Thomas, at his own 
expense, in an island of the river Derwent, 
facing the town of Derby. It works three 
capital engines for making organzine, or thrown 
silk ; has 26,586 wheels ; and 97,746 move- 
ments, which are all w^orked by one water- 
wheel, that turns round three times in a min- 
ute. By every turn of the w^ater- wheel, the 
machine twists 73,726 yards of silk thread, 
so that in twenty-four hours it will twist 
318,496,320 yards; yet any single wheel or 
movement may be stopped, without impeding 
the rest ; and the whole is governed by one 
regulator. 

This machine was thought of such import- 
ance by the legislature, that, on the expiration 

»7# 



78 WONDERS OF ART. 

of the patent which Sir Thomas had obtained 
for the sole use of it during 14 years, the par- 
liament granted him 14,000/., as a farther re- 
compense for the hazard he ran, and the ex- 
pense he had incurred, by introducing and 
erecting it, on condition that he should suffer 
a perfect model of it to be taken, in order to 
secure and perpetuate the invention. 

Northward of the White Tower is a noble 
building, called the Grand Store-house, extend- 
ing 245 feet in length, and GO in breadth. It 
was begun by King James II., and finished by 
William III., who erected that magnificent 
room called the New, or Small Armory, to 
which there is a passage by a folding-door, 
adjoining to the east end of the Tower chapel, 
which leads to a grand staircase of easy ascent. 
On the left side of the uppermost landing is a 
workshop, in which are constantly employed 
about fourteen furbishers, in cleaning, repair- 
ing, and arranging the arms contained in this 
place ; which are so artfully disposed, that at 
one view may be seen arms for nearly 200,000 
men, all bright and fit for service at a mo- 
ment's warning. Of the disposition of these 
arms no adequate idea can be formed by de- 
scription ; and there are a thousand peculiari- 
ties in the disposition of so vast a variety which 
no description can reach. 

Upon the ground-floor, under the Small Ar- 
mory, is a large room of equal dimensions with 
that, supported by twenty pillars, all hung 



WONDERS OF ART. 79 

round with warlike implements. This room, 
which contains the royal train of artillery, is 
24 feet high, and is full of the most dreadful 
engines of destruction ; besides harness for 
horses, men's harness, drag-ropes, trophies of 
standards, colors, &c. 

Eastward of the White Tower, is the Horse 
Armory, consisting of a plain brick building, in 
which are several curiosities. 

Before the room-door is the figure of a gren- 
adier in his accoutrements, as if upon duty, 
with his piece rested upon his arm. Within 
the room, on the left hand, are figures as large 
as life, of horse and foot, supposed to be drawn 
up in military order, to attend a line of kings 
on the other side of the room, shown in the 
following order : King George I. in a complete 
suit of armor, with a truncheon in his hand, 
seated on a white horse, richly caparisoned, 
having a fine Turkey bridle gilt, with a globe, 
crescent, and star, velvet furniture laced with 
gold, and gold trappings. King William III. 
dressed in the suit of armor worn by Edward 
the Black Prince, at the battle of Cressy ; he 
is mounted on a sorrel horse, whose furniture 
is green velvet, embroidered with silver, and 
holds in his right hand a flaming sword. 

King Charles 11. dressed in armor, with a 
truncheon in his hand, seated on a fine horse, 
richly caparisoned, with crimson velvet, laced 
with gold. King Charles I. in a rich suit of 
gilt armor, curiously wrought, presented to him 



80 WONDERS OF ART. 

by the city of London, when he was Prince of 
Wales. James L in a complete suit of figured 
armor, with a truncheon in his right hand. 
King Edward VI. in a curious suit of steel 
armor, whereon are depicted, in different com- 
partments, a variety of scripture histories ; he 
sits like the rest on horseback, with a truncheon 
in his hand. King Henry VIII. in his own ar- 
mor, which is of polished steel, with the foliages 
gilt, and bearing a sword in his right hand. 

King Henry VII., who also holds a sword, 
and is seated on horseback in a complete suit 
of armor, finely wrought, and washed with sil- 
ver. King Edward V., who, with his brother 
Richard, was smothered in the Tower, by order 
of their uncle and guardian Richard III. ; and 
having been proclaimed king, but never 
crowned, a crown is suspended over his head; 
he holds a lance in his right hand, and is dress- 
ed in a rich suit of armor. King Edward IV. 
in a bright suit of armor, studded, with a drawn 
sword in his hand. King Henry VI., Henry V., 
and Henry IV. King Edward III. with a ven- 
erable beard, in a suit of plain bright armor, 
with two crowns on his sword, alluding to his 
having been crowned king both of England 
and France. King Edward I. dressed in a 
very curious suit of gilt armor, and in shoes of 
mail, with a battle-axe in his hand. And 
William the Conqueror, the first in the line, 
though the last shown, in a suit of plain armor. 

The other principal curiosities in this room 



WONDERS OF ART. 81 

are a large tilting-lance of Charles Brandon, 
duke of Suffolk ; a complete suit of armor, 
made for King Henry VIII. when he was but 
eighteen years of age, rough from the hammer ; 
a small suit of armor made for King Charles II. 
when he was about seven or eight years of 
age, with a piece of armor for his horse's head ; 
real coats of mail, called Brigandine jackets, 
consisting of small bits of steel, so artfully 
quilted one over another, as to resist the point 
of a sword, and perhaps a musket-ball, and yet 
so flexible, that the wearer may bend his body 
any way, as well as in an ordinary suit of 
clothes ; an Indian suit of armor,* sent by the 
Great Mogul as a present to King Charles II. ; 
the armor of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancas- 
ter, the son of Edward III. ; and a dr.oll figure 
of one William Somers, said to have been jester 
to King Henry VIII. 

Over the door of the armory, on the inside, 
is a target, on which are engraved the figures 
of Justice, Fortune, and Fortitude ; and the 
walls of the room are entirely lined with va- 
rious pieces of armor for horses' heads and 
breasts, targets, and many pieces that now 
want a name. 

About twenty yards east of the grand store- 

* This is reckoned a great curiosity, being made of iron 
quills, each about two inches long, finely japanned, and ranged 
in rows, one row easily slipping over another ; these are bound 
together with silk twist, and are used in India as a defence 
against darts and arrows. 



82 \VONDERS OF ART. 

house, or new armory, is the Jewel-office : a 
dark stone room, in which the jewels of the 
crown are deposited. The jewels shown at 
this time are the following : 

The imperial crown, with which it is pre- 
tended all the kings of England have been 
crowned, since Edward the Confessor, in 1342. 
It is of gold, enriched with diamonds, rubies, 
emeralds, sapphires, and pearls. The cap 
within is of purple velvet, lined with white 
taffety, turned up with three rows of ermine. 
The golden orb, or globe, put into the king's 
right hand, before he is crowned ; and borne 
in his left, with the sceptre in his right, upon 
his return into Westminster Hall, after he is 
crowned at Westminster Abbey. 

The globe is about six inches in diameter, 
edged with pearl, and enriched with precious 
stones. On the top is an amethyst of a violet 
color, nearly an inch and a half high, set with 
a rich cross of gold, adorned with diamonds, 
pearls, and other jewels ; the whole height of 
the ball is eleven inches. 

The golden sceptre, with its cross set upon 
a large amethyst of great value, garnished 
round with table-diamonds. The top rises 
into a fleur-de-lis of six leaves, all enriched 
with precious stones ; from whence issues a 
mound, or ball, made of the amethyst already 
mentioned. The sceptre with the dove, the 
emblem of peace, perched on the top of a small 
Jerusalem cross, finely ornamented with table- 



vvo:N'l?r.rvg oP art. 88 

diamonds, and jewels of great value* St. Ed- 
ward's staff, four feet seven a-nd a half inched 
in length, and three inches three quarters in 
circumference, all of beaten gold, w^hich is 
carried before the king at his coronation. The 
rich crown of state worn by his majesty in 
parliament, in which is a large emerald, seven 
inches round, a pearl, esteemed the finest in the 
world, and a ruby of inestimable value* The 
crown belonging to the Prince of Wales, which 
is carried, together with the king's crown, as 
often as his majesty goes to the parliament- 
house, by the keeper of the jewel-office, at- 
tended by the warders, to Whitehall, where 
both crowns are delivered to the officers ap-^ 
pointed to receive them, who, with some yeo- 
men of the guard, carry them to the robing 
rooms adjoining to the House of Lords, where 
his majesty and the Prince of Wales put on 
their robes. The king wears his crown on his 
head while he sits upon the throne ; but that of 
the prince is placed before him. As soon as 
the king is disrobed, the crowns are carried 
back to the tower, and again locked up in the 
jewel-office. 

The crown, globe, and sceptre of Queeil 
Mary, with the diadem she wore at her coro-^ 
nation with her consort William III. An ivory 
sceptre, with a dove on the top, made for the 
queen of James IL, whose garniture is gold^ 
enamelled with white. The curtana, or sword 
of mercy, the blade of which is thirty-two inches 



84 WONDERS OF ART. 

long, and nearly two broad, without a point, 
carried before the king at his coronation, be- 
tween the two swords of justice. The golden 
spurs, and the armillas, or bracelets for the 
wrists, which, though very antique, are worn 
at the coronation. The ampulla, or eagle of 
gold, which is finely engraved, and holds the 
holy oil the kings and queens of England are 
anointed with ; and the golden spoon that the 
bishops pour the oil into. The eagle and spoon 
are pieces of great antiquity ; the former, in- 
cluding the pedestal, is about nine inches high, 
and the wings expand about seven inches ; the 
head of the eagle screws off about the middle 
of the neck, which is made hollow for holding 
the holy oil ; and when the king is anointed, 
the oil is poured into the spoon out of the bird's 
bill. 

A rich salt-cellar of state, in the form of the 
square white tower ; the workmanship is ex- 
quisitely fine : it is of gold, and used only on 
the king's table at the coronation. A noble 
silver font, doubly gilt, and elegantly wrought; 
in which the royal family are christened. And 
a large silver fountain presented to Charles 11. 
by the town of Plymouth, curiously wrought. 
Here also are deposited all the crown jewels 
worn by the princes and princesses at corona- 
tions, and an abundance of curious old plate. 



woNDiins or ART* 86? 



THE CROTON WATER WORKS. 

The Croton Aqueduct was designed to sup- 
ply the city of New York with an abundance 
of pure and wholesome water. It commences 
about six miles above the mouth of the Croton 
river, where a dam has been constructed to el- 
evate the water of the river 40 feet, to the level 
of the head of the aqueduct, or 166 feet above 
mean tide. The course of the aqueduct passes 
along the valley of the Croton to near its 
mouth, and thence passes into the valley of 
the Hudson. At eight miles from the Croton 
dam, it reaches the village of Sing Sing, and 
continues souih through the villages of Tarry- 
town, Dobbs' Ferry, Hastings, and Yonkers* 
It thence proceeds to the Harlem river, which 
it crosses, and thence passes along to the 
receiving reservoir, bounded north by 86th 
street. 

The Croton Aqueduct, with all its fixtures 
and appendages, is the most extensive and im- 
portant work of the kind ever undertaken in 
the United States* Of its magnitude and util- 
ity, persons can have but little conception, un- 
less they have examined its mechanical exe* 
cution, or witnessed its salubrious influences 
upon the health and comfort of the people for 
whose benefit it was originally designed. The 
citizens of the city of New York now consider 
it indispensably necessary for the ordinary pur- 
poses of life ; nor can they imagine how they 

8 



86 WONDERS OF AM. 

were ever enabled to live contentedly without 
the use of it. 

The Croton Aqueduct, as a work of enter- 
prise, mechanical skill, and philanthropic re-^ 
gard to the social enjoyments of a large city, 
should be classed among the most distinguished 
productions of art in the whole world. It does 
not indeed compare in the amount of its mason 
work with the pyramids of Egypt. It did not 
indeed require one hundred thousand men for 
the average period of human life to complete 
it — the sum of labor consumed in one of those 
proud monuments of antiquity. What an ab- 
solute despotism w^as necessary to control this 
labor ! What a destitution of sympathetic 
feeling must have been evinced in thus doom- 
ing to a species of slavery so many human be- 
ings ! And yet for no other object than to 
gratify the pride of a single individual in the 
erection of his own mausoleum ! 

But while the Egyptian pyramids remain 
monuments of the folly, or the pride, or the 
cruelty, of their builders ; the Croton Water 
Works will remain in all coming time the 
monument of the wisdom, and the liberality, 
and the beneficence of a people deserving to 
inhabit the empire city of America. And here 
strangers will repair, from generations now 
unborn, to quaff its limpid and unfailing cur- 
rents, and in loitering round its sparkling foun- 
tains, to inhale an atmosphere made healthful 
by its cooling vapors. They will tell of the 



WONDERS OF ART. 87 

glory of its projectors and of the benedictions 
of uncounted thousands that will forever em- 
balm their memory. 

The simple matter of a tunnel of solid ma- 
son work, seven and a half feet in width, nine 
feet high, and forty miles long, is far from 
comprising the whole of this immense under- 
taking. The great dam in the Croton river ; 
the magnificent stone aqueduct at Sing Sing ; 
the bridge across the Harlem river ; and the 
main reservoir in the city, are all costly and 
stupendous w^orks. Each one of these would 
furnish materials for curious calculation to the 
mechanic or the man of science. 

The dam across the Croton is placed where 
the river enters between the hills, after having 
passed for several miles through a more level 
country. The hill on the south side is solid 
rock, and on the north excellent earth for con- 
structing the dam. The dam itself, as might 
be conjectured from its position, is not of great 
length, but is one of the most ingenious works 
of substantial masonry anywhere to be found. 

The highest point of the structure is rather 
more than fifty feet above the natural bed of 
the Croton. The water will be thrown back 
by this elevation more than three miles, form- 
ing a beautiful lake of four hundred acres ; 
the whole margin of which is excavated, so 
that the water will be nowhere less than three 
feet deep ; thus forming the great fountain 
head, which will contain about 100,000,000 of 



88 WONDERS OF ART. 

gallons for each foot in depth from the sur- 
face. 

The water is drawn into the aqueduct by 
means of a tunnel cut into a rock which con- 
stitutes the hill on the south side. At distances 
of one mile, a circular hollow tower is erected 
over the aqueduct, for the purpose of ventila- 
tion : these being composed of white marble 
produce a very fine effect. Every three miles 
is an apparatus for drawing off the water in 
case any internal repairs should be necessary. 
But the most imposing structure of the whole 
work, is the great bridge at Sing Sing. It is 
composed chiefly of one grand arch of eighty- 
eight feet span, thrown over a deep ravine, so 
that from the apex of the arch to the bottoni 
of the ravine must be a hundred feet. 

This vast arch was so firmly laid in its abut- 
ments, and so securely built in its superstruc- 
ture, that since the uprights were removed 
from beneath the arch, it has settled but one 
inch. So little settling in such a work, we are 
told, has never before occurred. The whole 
quantity of land which the w^ater commission- 
ers have been compelled to buy on the whole 
course of the w^orks, amounts to nine hundred 
acres ; and the average price has been nearly 
five hundred dollars per acre. 

The plan of the bridge across the Harlem 
river is for a work 1450 feet in length, although 
the stream is but (^20 feet wide where it cross- 
es. This increased length is owing to the 



WONDEPxS OF ART. 89 

inclination of its banks. The proposed num- 
ber of piers, built of stone, was to be sixteen ; 
of which six were to be in the water and ten 
on the land. The land piers are less than 
those in the water, and their height varies ac- 
cording to the slope of the banks of the river. 
By means of this bridge, the Croton water is 
carried across the Harlem river in two cast- 
iron pipes, each four feet in diameter, which 
lie 12 feet below the grade line of the aqueduct. 
The object of using pipes in this case, is more 
effectually to secure the conduit from leakage. 
The main reservoir, situated near Blooming- 
dale, covers 35 acres of ground, divided into 
two sections ; the north section to have 20 feet 
of water when full, and the south 25 feet ; 
both will contain about 160,000,000 gallons of 
water. From this reservoir the water is con- 
veyed through the Fifth Avenue to the dis- 
tributing basin at Murray's Hill, between 40th 
and 42d streets, and is three miles from the 
City Hall. It covers five acres and will hold 
20,000,000 gallons. From thence the water 
is conveyed to the dwellings in the city by or- 
dinary distributing pipes. The descent from 
the dam in the Croton river to Murray's Hill, 
is about 46 feet, being a fraction less than 14 
inches to the mile. The entire length of the 
aqueduct, including the main pipes running 
from the distributing reservoir through the 
central part of the city, is nearly fifty miles. 

A large proportion of the open cutting, and 

3# 



W WONDERS OF ART. 

nearly all the tunnel cutting, has been through 
rock. More than 400,000 cubic yards of rock 
have been excavated. There are on the line 
sixteen tunnels, varying in length from 160 to 
1263 feet, making an aggregate length of 6841 
feet. In Westchester county there are twenty- 
five streams crossing the line of the aqueduct, 
that are from 12 to 70 feet below the grade 
line, and from 25 to 83 feet below the top 
covering of the aqueduct. And to pass the 
streams that intersect the whole line, and the 
land floods, there have been constructed under 
the aqueduct 114 culverts, whose aggregate 
length is 7959 feet. 

It has already been stated that the Croton 
reservoir, or lake, as it is now generally styled, 
covers about 400 acres of land. It is available 
as a reservoir for 500,000,000 gallons of water, 
above the level that would allow the aqueduct 
to discharge 35,000,000 gallons per day. The 
flow of the Croton is about 27,000,000 gallons 
in twenty- four hours at the lowest stages, 
which continues, with moderate rises by occa- 
sional rains, from two to three months in the 
year. This may be considered the minimum 
capacity of the river. 

When, therefore, the wants of the city shall 
require a daily supply of 35,000,000 gallons, it 
will be necessary, during the season of lowest 
water, to draw daily from this reservoir 
8,000,000 gallons, to make up the deficiency 
in the natural flow of the river. This amount 



WONDERS OF ART. 91 

the reservoir would supply for sixty-two days, 
without any aid from occasional rains ; which 
may safely be relied upon to keep up the re- 
quired supply from the reservoir, beyond any 
drought we have ground to apprehend. The 
supply of the Croton from its daily flow, aided 
by this reservoir, may therefore be taken with 
great confidence at 35,000,000 gallons, which 
will be very ample for the wants of the city 
for a long time to come ; and when the day 
arrives that it will require a larger quantity, 
it may be obtained by constructing other re- 
servoirs farther up the stream, where there 
are abundant facilities for such purposes. To 
the present time the average flow of water, 
since its introduction into the Croton aqueduct, 
has been about 14,000,000 only ; less than half 
of what might be had. 

The entire cost of the Croton Water Works 
will amount to at least $12,500,000. The city 
of New York presents, it is believed, the only 
instance of a comparatively small city, not ex- 
ceeding, at the time of engaging in the enter- 
prise, 280,000 inhabitants, (which is small 
compared with European cities,) voting that 
it should be undertaken in a style and on a 
scale greatly beyond their actual or any im- 
aginable future wants ; but which, designed 
to endure for ages, would bear record to those 
ages, however distant, of a race of men who 
were content to incur present burdens, for the 
benefit of a posterity they could never know. 



92 WONDERS OF ART. 

Having resolved on the work, they carried 
it on with a degree of constancy and energy 
alike remarkable, so that in the period of five 
years an aqueduct was completed, ample in 
its capacit}^ and in its workmanship worthy 
of universal admiration. Nor is it less re- 
markable that all this was accomplished amidst 
difficulties of no common kind. 'Financial 
difficulties, during periods of its progress, pa- 
ralyzed, in no small degree, the financial opera- 
tions of the whole country ; extending also to the 
main portions of the civilized world. However, 
the city resolved that means should be provided ; 
and they were promptly and amply provided. 

Nor ought the fact tq, be overlooked, that 
not only is the most ample provision made for 
the ultimate payment of the principal of the 
loan contracted in the building of the work; 
but also for the interest thereof, amounting 
annually to the sum of $665,000. To this end 
the entire revenues of the aqueduct are pledg- 
ed, together with the other resources of the 
city sinking fund, so that by the year 1880, 
not a vestige of that loan will remain. Thus 
will the pecuniary obligations of New York, 
incurred in the construction of this gigantic 
wwk, be strictly discharged, while the present 
age will be making a free gift to all subse- 
quent generations, of what may well compare 
with the works which Rome points to, as con- 
stituting the most valuable monuments of her 
ancient glory. 



WOXDERS OF ART. 9S 

The Greeks had their aqueducts, so have 
many modern nations ; but it is at Rome we 
chiefly are to look for the greatest wonders in 
ihis department of the useful arts. The ag- 
gregate length of eight of her principal aque- 
ducts was 275 miles ; and Frontinus, who liv- 
ed in the first century, when the population 
of Rome was computed at from 1,000,000 to 
1,200,000, states that the daily supply from 
these works was 196,000,000 gallons, equal 
to 193 gallons to each individual. Of this 
profuse use of water, we may form some con- 
jecture, by a reference to the fact, that Lon- 
don, w^th twice the population, consumes but 
37,000,000, or the fifth part of the supply of 
ancient Rome. 

The fountains of the Croton aqueduct, as 
yet, do not compare with those of an older date 
in other countries for architectural decorations. 
Those of the Bowling Green, the Park, and of 
Union Place, however, may be referred to as 
not surpassed in capacity for aquatic display 
by any similar works, even of the proud cap- 
itals of continental Europe. Hereafter, no 
doubt, they will each receive embellishments 
creditable to the city. 

But there are other considerations that pro- 
perly enter into our estimate of the value of 
the Croton Water Works. The use made of 
the water for cleaning the streets will be found 
among the best preservatives of health. And 
the plentiful supply of it has done much, and 



94 WONDERS OF ART. 

will continue to do much, to secure property 
from loss by fire. There is now a feeling of 
security with the owners of property before 
unknown in New York. The knowledge of 
the fact, that it may be had on any occasion 
however sudden, and in any quantity how^ever 
large, in the large warehouses, will not only 
lead many persons to feel this security, and 
hence in large stocks of merchandise not to 
insure the same to the full amount as hereto- 
fore ; but in the reduction of premiums to save 
large sums in what is insured. 

It is impossible to state the amount of pro- 
perty — real estate, furniture, and merchandise 
— insured against loss from fire in New York. 
However, from the known appraised value of 
the real estate, most of which is insured in 
some form or other ; and from the best avail- 
able data on which to make an estimate for 
the merchandise actually insured or liable to 
insurance, it may be presumed that the amount 
of premiums for insurance in New York, is 
not less annually than $400,000. Since the 
free introduction of the Croton water, the rates 
of premium have declined at least forty per 
cent. The whole of this reduction may not 
have been occasioned by that alone ; but it is 
fair to presume, that the Croton water has 
made a direct annual saving of insurance in 
New York of not less than $100,000. 



WONDERS OP ART. &5 



PAPER MAKING. 

Paper, thin sheets of a vegetable substance 
Used as a vehicle for writing, was so named 
from the papyrus, the leaves of which plant 
originally did, a.nd still do, serve certain na- 
tions for that purpose. 

That paper may be made from any vegeta- 
ble substance, is evident from the fact of its 
having been recently produced from oak saw- 
dust ; after which, it is scarcely necessary to 
enumerate the various other materials from 
which it is also manufactured. 

The paper of the Egyptians is made of the 
papyrus, a rush growing on the banks of the 
Nile, as already mentioned* Chinese paper 
is of various kinds, as of the rinds of barks of 
trees, especially of the mulberry, the elm, the 
bamboo, and the cotton tree. Cotton paper 
has been in use upwards of six hundred yearsj 
and is still made in the East Indies by beating 
cotton rags to a pulp. Paper made of straw 
is now used in London ; and a whole genus of 
aquatic vegetables, known by the name of 
conferva, have lately been applied to this pur- 
pose in Germany. 

Though this latter may be an original dis-. 
covery of the professor who has brought it for- 
ward, the practice was formerly realized in 
Scotland, as appears from a notice in Light- 
foot's Flora-Scotica, respecting the conferva 
bullosa, or craw-silk. 



66 WONDERS OF ART. 

" It is a soft substance^ and in pure water, 
where the threads grow long, resembles tow: 
but in muddy waters, where they are short, it 
is not unlike cotton; which being carefully 
collected undried, turns whitish, and has some-* 
times been used instead of it, either as wad- 
ding to stuff garments with, or to make towels 
or napkins. We have also seen a coarse kind 
of paper made of it, at Edinburgh." 

" This substance," says a correspondent of 
the Monthly Magazine, " may be met with in 
great abundance in almost every ditch and 
pool, especially in old clay-pits and in most 
slow streams* In cold weather it is always 
below the surface of the water, and forms a 
mass of yellowish green fibres, very fine, and 
interlacing each other in every direction. In 
summer it rises to the surface in large fleece* 
like masses, commonly of a deep*green color 
and a spongy texture, enclosing numerous 
globules of air, to which it owes its buoyancy. 
If raked out of the water, and exposed for a 
few days to the sun, it loses its green color 
and becomes very tolerably bleached." 

Linen paper, or that made of cloth produced 
from flax, the last species to be mentioned, ap- 
pears to have been first introduced about the 
beginning of the fourteenth century ; but by 
whom it was invented is not known. The 
manufacture of this paper, of which kind are 
the present sheets, is effected by the following 
processes : after procuring rags from the deat 



WONDERS OF AKT* M 

ers in that commodity, the first and most dis- 
agreeable operation is that of sorting them. 

This, however, must be done with care ; for 
upon a due selection depends, in the first in- 
stance, the purity of the paper. The rags are 
then put into the dusting engine, a circular 
wire sieve, where they are exposed to running 
water and cleansed. They are next conveyed 
to the mill : there they are put into a large 
vat or cistern, through which clear water is 
constantly flowing. In this cistern is placed a 
cylinder, about two feet in length, set thick 
round with rows of iron spil^es, placed as near 
as may be without touching each other. At 
the bottom of the trough are corresponding 
rows of spikes. The cylinder is made to whirl 
round with great rapidity ; and the iron teeth 
rend and tear the rags in every possible direc- 
tion. 

At length, with the softening assistance of 
the water, they are thoroughly masticated and 
reduced to a fine pulp; while, by the same 
process, all their impurities are washed away 
and they are left perfectly white. This ope- 
ration is performed in about six hours. For 
the sake of color, a quantity of common light 
blue, or azure, is sometimes added, which 
gives the paper a bluish cast. This practice, 
however, was not formerly in use ; and now 
generally is rejected, as in the paper that bears 
these observations. 

The fine pulp is next put into a copper af 

9 



98 WONDiiilS OF ART. 

warm Water. This is the substance of paper, 
to which a form is now to be given by means 
of a mould. This utensil bears a general re- 
semblance to a sieve. In the old manner, its 
surface was composed of wire bars crossed 
with others of a finer texture, the form of 
which may be discovered by holding paper 
made on such moulds to the light. It is by 
these wires, which take from the thickness of 
the paper, and consequently give a transpa- 
rency, that what are called the water-marks 
are produced ; and the water-marks may be 
of any form, according to the wire-worker's 
design, as is exemplified in the modern bank- 
paper. 

The paper, however, which is called wire- 
wove, and that used for drawing, and which 
has no other mark than the maker's name, is 
made upon moulds, the wired bottom of w4iich 
is extremely fine, with the wires closely inter- 
woven ; and some examples of inferior wove 
paper exhibit this crossing of the wires, as 
plainly as the bars are perceived in that made 
after the old manner. 

This mould is dipped horizontally into the 
copper containing the pulp, and immediately 
taken out. By means of its w^ooden frame, it 
retains just so much pulp as is wanting for the. 
thickness of the sheet, while the superfluity re- 
turns through the interstices of the wires. A 
second hand, called a coucher, instantly re- 
ceives it from the dipper, called a vat-man ; 



WONDERS OF ART. 99 

opens the frame and turns out the sheet, (which 
now has shape, but noi consistence,) on a cloih 
of soft felt, which is spread on the ground to 
receive it. 

Over this is laid another piece of feh% which 
receives another sheet of paper ; and the pile 
is thus increased, till forty or fifty sheets are 
formed. These are then removed to a large 
screw-press, moved by a long lever, which 
forcibly squeezes the water out of them, and 
gives them immediate consistence ; after which, 
the felt and paper are separated ; and the lat- 
ter, which is throw^i on one side while the for- 
mer is thrown on the other, is taken up with 
an instrument in the form of the letter T, three 
sheets at a time, and hung on lines to dry. It 
hangs for a week or ten days, during which 
its whiteness is increased, and then passes 
through the hands of women called pickers, 
who with proper instruments remove knots, 
dirt, or other imperfections. 

It is then sized, without which operation it 

i would not bear ink or any liquid. The sheets 
are just dipped into the size and taken out 
again. The exact degree of sizing is a matter 
of nicety, to be understood only through expe- 

; rience. The paper is hung up to dry a second 

, time ; and when this object is completed, it is 
taken to the finishing room, when the faulty 
sheets are rejected, and the perfect pressed in 

I dry presses, which give them their ordinary 
degree of smoothness ; counted into quires and 



100 WONDERS OF ART. 

reams ; and packed for sale to the stationer, 
by whom they are retailed to the public. 

The stationer also cuts the edges, and causes 
it, for various purposes, to be gilt or hot-press- 
ed ; which latter operation is performed by 
means of heated copper plates. The whole 
process at the paper-mill occupies about three 
weeks. The part performed by the power of 
the mill itself, is that of reducing the rags to a 
pulp, as before described. 

I'he manufacture of paper was commenced 
in the United States about the year 1700, and 
was then deemed of so much importance, that 
the colonial legislature of Connecticut, with- 
out consulting the interests of the mother 
country, offered a bounty on every ream made 
within their jurisdiction. Its progress was 
slow and uncertain, notwithstanding the re- 
ward of high prices, until the establishment of 
a tariff of duties, which effected the total 
exclusion of foreign papers of the ordinary 
kinds. 

From that time to the present, the quantity 
manufactured has rapidly increased, and pri- 
ces constantly declined. Machinery of the 
most perfect and expensive kind has been in- 
troduced, and there is no description of paper 
that may not now be as well manufactured 
here as abroad. The facilities for supplying 
the country are ample, and so great is the 
competition, that prices are reduced to the 
lowest remunerating rates. 



WONDERS OF ART. 101 

In illustration of the unexampled increase 
of consumption, it may be stated, that in the 
year 1825 the circulation of the daily and 
weekly press in the city of •New York was 
equal to fifteen thousand copies per day ; while 
at the present time the same circulation is 
equal to one hundred and thirty thousand copies, 
and of a size very much enlarged. The di- 
minution of prices in the mean time, quality 
considered, is fully equal to one half. 

Our paper-making interest, in all its details 
and connections, extends its influence over the 
whole body of the community, and affects, in 
one way or another, more individuals, proba- 
bly, than any other branch of manufacture of 
equal magnitude. The material for its support 
is drawn from every inhabited house in the 
land ; and the products of the paper-mill, in 
one form or other, enter into the daily use of 
every family and every branch of business. 

The capital invested in the business is es- 
timated, on a careful investigation, at sixteen 
millions of dollars ; and the annual proceeds 
at fifteen millions ; the number of mills being 
at least six hundred, distributed over twenty- 
two States of the Union ; and the number of 
persons deriving their support from the busi- 
ness, at not less than fifty thousand. This 
capital is not monopolized by a few wealthy in- 
dividuals or companies, but, with few excep- 
tions, is held by men in moderate circumstan- 
ces, and to a great extent by those who con» 



102 WONDERS OF ART. 

tribute their own labor in the prosecution of 
the business. 

The amount of stock consumed in all branch- 
es of this mattufacture, is about eighty-five 
thousand tons per annum ; of which at least 
seventy-five thousand tons are of domestic 
origin, and worth five millions of dollars. This 
very considerable item is emphatically the 
savings of the poor and economical, — a clear 
gain to those who most need it, and a dead 
loss to the country, should our manufactures 
be broken down. 

The amount of transportation, by land and 
water, incident to this branch of manufacture, 
is not less than two hundred thousand tons 
per annum, constituting no inconsiderable item 
of income to our coasting vessels, railroads, 
canals, and teamsters. The gross amount 
thus annually paid cannot fall short of half a 
million of dollars. 

We will but make a passing reference to 
the agricultural interest, as connected with 
this branch of industry. And surely the sup- 
plying fifty thousand persons, totally depend- 
ent for their daily food on the surplus products 
of the neighboring farmers, is a consideration 
of no small importance to this class of our po- 
pulation. 

We might proceed to enumerate various other 
interests, whose welfare is connected with that 
of the paper manufacture ; but enough has 
been said to show the extent, and to suggest 



WONDERS OF ART. 103 

its importance as a branch of national indus- 
try. The intimate connection between the 
several branches of national industry, and 
their mutual dependence on each other for a 
healthy condition of the whole, cannot fail to 
be realized by every enlightened statesman, 
and need not here be urged. 



CANALS, 

A CANAL is an aqueduct made for the pur- 
pose of inland navigation. This great im- 
provement in the conveyance of commodities 
has attained a high degree of perfection, and 
enables us to transport them even over moun- 
tains where it w^ould appear impossible to pre- 
serve a communication, or rather a continuity 
of water carriage with the subjacent plains. 
This is effected by means of locks built of ma- 
sonry, each of which serves as the conjunction 
of two different levels. 

The locks are made only large enough to 
admit the vessels employed in the business, 
and have two gates, one at each end. When 
a vessel should ascend to a superior level, the 
upper gate is shut, and the vessel being brought 
within the lock, the lower gate is closed, and 
the upper one opened. By this means the 
water flows in, and the vessel is raised to the 
intended height. The upper gate is closed as 
soon as the vessel has passed, but the water in 



104 WONDERS OF ART. 

the lock is preserved for the purpose of letting' 
a vessel down, which is done by shutting the 
upper gate after she is in the lock, and opening 
the lower one ; so that she is gradually lower- 
ed to the next level. 

The water in all cases is let in or out by 
means of a small hatch, making its rise and 
fall very gradual ; else the gates would be torn 
from their hinges bj- the rush of so large a 
body, and the vessel would be endangered. 
" All canals," says an intelligent writer on this 
subject, '' may be considered as so many roads 
of a certain kind, on which one horse will draw 
as much as thirty horses on oixlinary turnpike 
roads, or on which one man alone will trans- 
port as many goods as three men and eighteen 
horses usually do on common roads. 

" The public would be great gainers were 
they to lay out upon the making of every mile 
of a canal twenty times as much as they ex- 
pend upon a mile of turnpike road ; but a mile 
of canal is often made at a less expense than 
a mile of turnpike : consequently there is a 
great inducement to multiply the number of 
canals." The advantages resulting from ca- 
nals, as they open an easy and cheap commu- 
nication between distant parts of a country, 
will be ultimately experienced by persons of 
various descriptions ; and more especially by 
the manufacturer, the occupier or owner of 
land, and the merchant. 

The nations that appear to have been first 



WONDERS OP ART. 105 

civilized, were those that dwelt round the coast 
of the Mediterranean Sea, which, from a va- 
riety of circumstances, was extremely favor- 
able to the early navigation of the world. Of 
all the countries on the coast of the Mediter- 
ranean, Egypt seems to have been the first, in 
which either agriculture or manufactures were 
cultivated or improved to any considerable de- 
gree. Upper Egypt extends no more than a 
few miles from the Nile, and in Lower Egypt 
that great river breaks itself into many differ- 
ent canals, which, aided by a small degree of 
art, seem to ha.ve afforded a communication 
by water carriage, not only between all the 
large towns, but between all the considerable 
villages, and even to many farm-houses in the 
country; nearly in the same manner as the 
Rhine and the Maese do in Holland at pres- 
ent- 

The extent or facility of this inland naviga- 
tion was probably one of the principal causes 
of the early improvement in agriculture ; and 
manufactures seem likewise to have been of 
very great antiquity in the provinces of Ben- 
gal in the East Indies, and in some of the 
eastern provinces of China. In Bengal, the 
Ganges and several other large rivers form a 
great number of navigable canals, in the same 
manner as the Nile does in Egypt. The case 
is the same in the eastern provinces of China, 
where several large rivers form, by their dif- 
ferent branches, a multitude of canals, and by 



106 WONDERS OF ART. 

• 

communicating with one another afford an in- 
land navigation much more extensive than that 
either of the Nile or the Ganges, or perhaps of 
both united. 

It is remarkable, however, that neither the 
ancient Egyptians, nor the Indians, nor the 
Chinese, encouraged foreign commerce ; but 
they all seem to have derived their extraordi- 
nary opulence from this inland navigation. 
On the other hand, those nations that have 
been destitute of the means of inland naviga- 
tion, either by the rivers or canals, have re- 
mained from one age to another in the same 
barbarous and uncivilized state. This obser- 
vation is exemplified in the state of all the in- 
land parts of Africa, and of that part of Asia 
which lies at any considerable distance north 
of the Euxine and Caspian seas, the ancient 
Scythia, and the modern Tartary and Si- 
beria. 

The commerce that may be carried on by 
means of a river, which does not break itself 
into any great number of branches or canals, 
and which runs into another territory before it 
reaches the sea, can never be very considera- 
ble ; because it is always in the power of the 
nation, who possesses that other territory, to 
obstruct the communication between the upper 
country and the sea. 

Thus the navigation of the Danube is of 
very little use to the different states of Ba- 
varia, Austria, and Hungary, in comparison of 



WONDERS OF ART. 107 

what it would be, if any of them possessed the 
whole of its course till it falls into the Black 
Sea. 

The canals of Holland and Flanders are in- 
numerable ; and they serve the purpose of our 
public roads, so that the inhabitants may travel 
by means of them, and convev commodities for 
consumption or exportation, from one part of 
the country to another, as occasion requires. 
An inhabitant of Rotterdam, it is said, by means 
of these canals, may breakfast at Delft or the 
Hague, dine at Leyden, and sup at Amsterdam, 
or return home a-gain before night. By them 
also a prodigious inland trade is carried on 
between Holland, France, Flanders, and Ger- 
many. 

When the canals are frozen over, they travel 
on them with skates, and perform long jour- 
neys in a very short time, vrhile heavy burdens 
are conveyed in carts and sledges which are 
then as much used on the canals as in our 
streets and roads. The profits which have ac- 
crued from these canals have been immense ; 
and their amount almost exceeds belief. It is 
said that they have yielded more than £250,000 
for about forty miles of inland navigation. 

The canals of Holland are generally sixty feet 
wide, and six feet deep. They are generally 
level and need no locks ; and they are com- 
monly elevated above the country for the pur- 
pose of carrying off the waters, which in win- 
ter inundate the land. In the province of Deft- 



108 WONDERS OF ART. 

land, not more \hv.n sixty miles long, 200 wind- 
mills are employed in spring, to raise the water 
into the canals. On the dams or banks by 
which they are bordered, and which are kept 
in repair at great expense, depends the security 
of the country from inundation. 

The first canal made expressly for the pur- 
pose of inland navigation, in England, of which 
we have any authentic account, is that of 
Sankey, cut in order to convey coals from the 
pits to Liverpool ; for virhich an act of parlia- 
ment was procured, 1753. The duke of Bridge- 
water, however, is considered the founder of 
that system of inland navigation, which has 
added so much to the wealth of Great Britain. 
It is stated, that there are at present in that 
country one hundred and three canals, the to- 
tal extent of which is two thousand six hun- 
dred and eighty-two and a quarter miles, which 
cost thirty millions sterling. 

This estimate of the cost gives an average of 
something more than eleven thousand pounds per 
mile. There are in the various canals forty-eight 
subterranean passages, forty of which have an 
extent of thirty-two miles. Such has been the 
effect, by opening new countries to cultivation^ 
by exploring the coal, iron, lime, and other 
minerals, and founding vast manufactories 
upon them, that every part of that island which 
is supplied with water communication, is en- 
abled to extend its commerce to every part of 
the world, and to obtain resources for support- 



WONDERS OF ART. 109 

ing its power, both by sea and land, which no 
other human means could enable it to do. 



IMPERIAL CANAL OF CHINA. 

In some respects China surpasses all other 
countries in canals. They are not constructed 
on the same scientific principles as those of 
Europe, nor composed like them of standing 
water, fed by reservoirs, elevated and lowered 
by locks. They are formed merely by turning 
aside the course of a river, and conducting its 
waters, by an artificial channel, till they join 
those of another river, from the other side of 
which the line is continued. The want of 
locks obliges the Chinese to conduct their ca- 
nals by lines winding round the different ele- 
vations which are encountered in their courses. 

The Imperial Canal of China is undoubtedly 
the greatest work of the kind in the world. 
Mr- Barrow gives the following description of 
it. All the rivers, he observes, of note in Chi- 
na fall from the high lands of Tartary, which 
lie to the rorthward of Thibet, crossing the 
plains of this empire, in their descent to the 
sea, from west to east. The inland navigation 
being carried from north to south, cuts these 
rivers at right angles, the smaller streams of 
which terminating in it, afford a constant sup- 
ply of water : and the three great rivers, the 
Eubo to the north, the Yellow River towards 

10 



110 WONDERS OF ART, 

the middle, and Yang-tse-kiang to the south, 
intersecting the canal, carry otF the superflu- 
ous water to the sea. The former, therefore, 
are the feeders, and the latter the dischargers 
of the great trunk of the canal. 

A number of difficulties must have arisen 
in accommodating the general level of the ca- 
nal to the several levelsof the feeding streams; 
for, notwithstanding all the favorable circum- 
stances of the face of the country, it has been 
found necessary, in many places, to cut down 
to the depth of sixty or seventy feet below the 
surface ; and in others to raise mounds of earth 
upon lakes, and swamps, and marshy grounds 
of such a length and magnitude, that nothing 
short of the absolute command over multitudes 
could have accomplished an undertaking, of 
which the immensity is exceeded only by the 
great wall of China. 

These stupendous embankments are some- 
times carried through lakes of several mile» 
in diameter, between which the water is forced 
up to a height considerably above that of the 
lake; and in such situations we sometimes 
observed this enormous aqueduct gliding along 
at the rate of three miles an hour. Few parts 
of it are level ; in some places it has little or 
no current: we had it one day setting to the 
southward at the rate of one, two, or three 
miles an hour, the next to the northward : and 
frequently, on the same day, we found it sta- 
tionary and running in opposite directions. 



WONDERS OF ART. Ill 

This balancing of the level was effected by 
flood-gates, thrown across at certain distances, 
to elevate or depress the height of the water 
a few inches, as might appear to be necessary ; 
and these stoppages are simply planks sliding 
in grooves, that are cut into the sides of two 
stone abutments, which in these places con- 
tract the canal to the width of about thirty 
feet. There is not a single lock, nor, except- 
ing these, a single interruption to a continued 
navigation of 600 miles. 

In approaching the Yellow River the impe- 
rial canal presents the grandest inland navi- 
gation in the world, being nearly 1000 feet in 
breadth, and confined on each side by stone 
quays, built with massy blocks of gray marble, 
mixed with others of granite. This immense 
aqueduct, thus forced up several feet above 
the surface of the country by those stupendous 
embankments, has numberless canals branch- 
ing out in every direction ; and for several 
miles, on each side, one continued town extends 
to the point of its junction with the river. 



ERIE CANAL, NEW YORK. 

The project for constructing this great work, 
fifty years since, would have been deemed 
chimerical. Indeed^ at the time of its com- 
mencement, not a few entertained that opinion. 
Even President Jefferson, with all his sagacity, 



112 WONDERS OF ART. 

ridiculed the idea of it. However, it was pro- 
jected, and it was completed ; and the enter- 
prise places the author of it among the great- 
est men of the present or any preceding age. 
The following particulars are taken from 
" Hunt's Magazine," a publication containing 
more useful information for merchants and 
other business men than any other similar 
work. 

This canal is the most extensive and costly 
work that has been constructed in the Union. 
Running through one of the most fertile and 
densely settled tracts of territory, for the dis- 
tance of about three hundred and sixty-three 
miles, a portion being cut through the solid 
rock, richly adorned with locks and aqueducts, 
and employing a large number of men^ as well 
as transporting the great bulk of the merchan- 
dise from the eastern to the western waters 
during a period of the last fifteeen years, we 
would devote a brief space to a consideration 
of the circumstances which have marked its 
progress to its final completion. 

The particular character of the territory 
between lake Erie and the Hudson river, and 
the rapid increase of the population through 
its central portion, early attracted the notice 
of the public. As early as 1768, the attention 
of the provincial legislature was called to the 
subject by the governor of the province, but 
the state of that period, and the sparse settle- 
ments of the region, prevented the adoption 



, WONDERS OF ART. 113 

of any measures to improve it. No direct 
measures were, in fact, undertaken to perfect 
this line of communication until 1808, when a 
concurrent resolution was proposed by the le- 
gislature of New York, to direct a survey to 
be made of " the most eligible and direct route 
for a canal from the Hudson river to Lake 
Erie." During the year 1810, commissioners 
w^ere appointed to examine the route, and this 
board consisted of De Witt Clinton, Governeur 
Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Peter B. Por- 
ter, Simeon De Witt, William North, and 
Thomas Eddy, to which were afterwards add- 
ed the names of Robert Fulton and Robert L» 
Livingston. The report of the board was 
drawn up by the able pen of Governeur Mor- 
ris, w^hich maintained the practicability of an 
inland canal, but at the same time proposed 
the plan of creating a,n artificial river from 
the elevation of lake Erie to the Hudson, and 
at the same time argued the facilities of an 
inclined plane canal, by which rivers and 
lakes were to be passed by aqueducts, and val- 
leys by mounds. 

That able and patriotic statesman, De Witt 
Clinton, took the lead in advancing the objects 
proposed by the survey, and on the presenta- 
tion of the report to the legislature, introduced 
into the senate a bill for the purpose of con- 
tinuing the investigations and preparing for 
the execution of the project. Fifteen thousand 
dollars were appropriated for further surveys, 

10* 



114 WONDERS OF ART. 

and the commissioners were authorized to ap- 
ply to the general government, or to those of 
any of the individual states, for assistance in 
accomplishing the canal. The wslt of 1812^ 
however, soon intervened, and the measures 
projected for its completion were suspended. 

On the return of peace, the subject of inter- 
nal improvement was again pressed upon pub- 
lic attention ; meetings were held, not only in 
the city of New York, but elsewhere, through 
which the legislature was memorialized in fa- 
vor of the proposed improvements, and in 1816 
a new board was formed similar to the former 
one, possessing the same powers, and estab- 
lished for the same general objects. Such en- 
ergy and promptitude were displayed by the 
new board in the performance of their duties, 
that the legislature were enabled to act with 
effect, and on the 15th of April, 1817, a law 
was passed constituting the basis of the pre- 
sent system of internal improvement through- 
out the state of New York. On the fourth of 
July of that year, the work was commenced ; 
and in 1825, the entire line was completed. 

On the 26th of October, 1826, the water of 
Lake Erie was admitted into the canal, and a 
flotilla set out from the harbor of Buffalo, con- 
veying the governor, the canal commissioners, 
and numerous distinguished persons, bearing 
the symbols of the junction of the waters of 
the lake and the ocean. The flotilla was in- 
creased at Albany by an escort of steamboats^ 



WONDERS OF ART. 115 

and when the aquatic procession entered the 
boundaries of the city of New York, the cor- 
poration and public authorities joined it, while 
signal cannon thundered out the tidings of the 
event from the harbor of Buffalo to the shores 
of the ocean. 

The progress and successful completion of 
the Erie canal may be attributed, in a very 
considerable measure, to the energetic and pa- 
triotic exertions of De Witt Clinton. This 
distinguished statesman not only early per- 
ceived the importance of the w^ork, but during 
its whole progress performed signal and un- 
tiring services in furtherance of the measure, 
by active personal services as board commis- 
sioner, and by drafting numerous cogent re- 
ports. So beneficial, indeed, had been his ser- 
vices to the state, in promoting its internal im- 
provement, and so great advantages had been 
reaped by the establishment of those works, 
that two large and rich silver vases w^ere pre- 
sented to him by the merchants of New York, 
without distinction of sect or party. 

The region throughout the entire line of the 
canal was indeed advanced in value to a great 
extent, through the agency of this great work. 
Furnishing a direct line of communication to 
the great metropolis of the country, the city of 
New York, it brought the agricultural resour- 
ces of that region of country into a most val- 
uable market, and at the same time furnished 
a cheap and safe line of transportation from 



116 WONDERS OF ART. 

the Atlantic seaboard to the populous towns 
and thriving settlements which were begin- 
ning to spring up throughout the west. Vil- 
lages also began to arise along the line of the 
canal, and became the depots of a rapidly in- 
creasing and prosperous trade. That portion 
of the interior of New York which had before 
spread out tracts of unsettled wilderness, was 
gradually subdued to agricultural industry, as 
the motives for cultivation increased by the 
opening of lines of transportation to new mar- 
kets. 

The increase of canal boats along the line 
of the canal, with the trampling of horses, and 
the clattering of the machinery of canal trans- 
portation, tended to enliven a scene which had 
before spread out a comparative solitude. In 
fact, the commercial metropolis of the country, 
the city of New York, derived the greatest 
benefit from the construction of the work, 
growing out of its increased trade, both in the 
supply of goods to the western interior, and in 
its being able to receive the agricultural pro- 
ducts of the west in return. 

This magnificent work is the most promi- 
nent in the nation, and has thus far yielded a 
large profit. Although it has more recently 
come into direct competition with the rail- 
roads which have been constructed through 
the same region, it has, notwithstanding, main- 
tained its own share of the business of trans- 
portation. Traversing, as before remarked, 



WONDERS OF ART. 117 

the distance of three hundred and sixty-three 
miles, being forty feet wide on the surface, 
twenty-eight at bottom, and maintaining a 
depth of four feet, it has been thought that 
the increase of its capacity would be a desir- 
able object. A plan has accordingly been 
commenced, and partially carried out, to widen 
the canal to a breadth of sixty feet, and to 
deepen it two feet, a plan which, although at- 
tended with considerable cost, will add greatly 
to its value. As mere architectural adorn- 
ments, some of its locks and aqueducts are 
splendid models of this species of masonry, 
and are as enduring as they are beautiful. 
This is especially true of the works at Lock- 
port, and those which have been constructed 
over some of the principal rivers. 

The cost of the enlargement is estimated at 
about 823,000,000. The boats chiefly employ- 
ed for transportation on the original canal, 
average about 55 to 60 tons. The enlarged 
canal will, if ever completed, accommodate 
boats of the average capacity of about 150 
tons ; and, as the cost of towing will be in- 
creased in a much smaller ratio than that of 
the tonnage, the price of freights will be very 
materially diminished. This diminution is es- 
timated at about 50 per cent. 

The importance of the canal to the various 
interests of the country, and particularly to 
the interests of New York, will fully appear 
from a statement of the amount of property 



118 wondehs of art. 

which came to the Hudson river from the ca- 
nal in 1844. The product of wood, including 
boards and scantlings, shingles, timber, staves, 
wood for fuel, and ashes, was $4,833,541. 
The product of animals, including pork, beef, 
cheese, butter, lard, and wool, was $6,930,971. 
The vegetable food, including flour, wheat, 
rye. corn, barley, other grain, bran and ship 
stuffs, peas and beans, potatoes and dried 
fruit, was $12,413,938. The other articles 
amounted to the sum of $4,058,200 — making 
in all $28,235,810. 



PERCUSSION LOCKS. 

The percussion lock is a late and very 
useful invention. This lock has no pan. In 
the place of the pan, a small tube projects 
horizontally from the side of the gun. In this 
tube another small tube stands perpendicularly. 
The cock, instead of being formed to hold a 
flint, is shaped somewhat like a hammer, with 
a hollow to fit upon the tube last mentioned. 

On this tube a little cap of copper is placed, 
in the bottom of which is a chemical mixture 
that kindles by percussion. This percussion is 
produced by the cock, which therefore requires 
a very strong spring. The powder is made in 
various ways, and of different materials ; among 
others, of mercury, purified nitric acid, and 
spirit of wine freed from water. The copper 



Wonders op art. 119 

caps in which this chemical powder is placed 
are two and a half lines long and two lines 
wide. Sometimes the powder is also formed 
in pills, and then a somewhat different contri- 
vance is required to place the pills, covered 
with a little wax, to protect them from moist- 
ure, in the small tube. 

The advantages of a percussion lock are 
great: L Provided the spring of the cock is 
strong, and the chemical powder good* the gun 
cannot miss fire ; (as to the latter, the sports- 
man must choose a good chemist.) while com- 
mon locks are exposed to miss fire from many 
causes — bad flints, bad steel, bad priming, and 
weak springs. 2. The chemical powder ex- 
plodes much more rapidly and forcibly than 
common powder, and therefore explodes the 
powder in the gun itself more forcibly, so as to 
produce a prompter and more effectual dis- 
charge. 3. The moisture of the air has hardly 
any influence : in a violent rain the lock is as 
sure to give fire as in the driest day. 4. The 
danger of an unintentional discharge is avoid- 
ed ; as long as the copper cap is not placed on 
the little tube, the gun cannot go otf, even if 
the cock is snapped by mistake ; while, with 
other guns, there is always danger, even when 
no priming has been put in the pan, because 
some grains may always escape through the 
touch-hole, and the cock may always be acci- 
dentally snapped. 

The caps or pills which the sportsman must 



120 WONDERS OP ART. 

carry with him are not dangerous, because it 
requires a very strong percussion to explode 
the powder. Percussion locks have come very 
much into use, and attempts have even been 
made to introduce them into armies, though 
the expense of the chemical powder maybe an 
objection. 



THE PENDULUM. 

Pendulum, in Mechanics, is a heavy body, so 
suspended as that it may vibrate, or swing 
backward and forward, about some fixed point, 
by the force of gravity. The vibrations of a 
pendulum are called its oscillations. From the 
precision of its motions, it is employed in meas- 
uring time and space. The distance of a ship, 
from Vv^hich a gun is fired, may be ascertained 
by measuring the interval of time between the 
flash and the sound of a gun ; and, upon the 
same principle, the distance of a cloud, by 
numbering the seconds or half seconds between 
the lightning and the thunder. Thus, sup- 
posing that between the lightning and thunder 
ten seconds are counted, it follow^s (sound pass- 
ing through 1142 feet in a second) that the 
distance of the cloud is 11420 feet. Height, 
also, as the height of a room, may be measured 
by a pendulum vibrating from its top ; and, by 
the same instrument, the force of gravity on 
the various parts of the earth's surface is dis- 



WONDERS OF ART. 121 

covered, and thence the true figure of the 
whole. 

One imperfection belongs to the pendulum, 
the remed}^ of which is a great object of pur- 
suit among men of science. It is that its 
length, upon which every thing depends, is 
perpetually liable to alteration, from the influ- 
ence of heat and cold ; the former of which 
expands, and the latter contracts, all metalline 
bodies. 

Since the invention of the pendulum for the 
regulation of time, by Galileo, the object of 
the researches of all the artists and philoso- 
phers for the im.provement of that art, has been 
to correct the defects arising from the contrac- 
tion and expansion of metals b}^ heat and cold. 
Harison, a celebrated English artist, has in 
some degree corrected these defects, by the in- 
vention of the " gridiron," put in practice by 
himself by Cummings, and most of the emi- 
nent watch and clock makers in Great Britain 
and France. Mr. Le Paute, an eminent artist 
of Paris, and watchmaker to the king, invent- 
ed a more simple pendulum ; by which the 
expansion and contraction of metals are ingeni- 
ously shown, by the assistance of a hand and 
quadrant on the pendulum, which mark the 
different degrees of heat and cold. This, al- 
though less complicated, comes as near the 
object in view as the " gridiron." 

Mr. Launy, an artist in New York, and 
ibrmerly distinguished in several cities of Eu* 

11 



122 WONDERS OP ART* 

rope, is said to have discovered a full and com- 
plete corrective of the defects already mention-' 
ed. His invention is far less complicated than 
those of Harison and Le Paute. Several artists, 
who have examined it, have expressed the 
fullest confidence in its correctness and utility. 
It is a compensating pendulum, and is expected 
to perform its office without any alteration from 
the effects of the weather, in the greatest ex- 
tremes ; and may be accommodated to any 
well-made clock, so as to convert it into an 
astronomical timepiece. 



THE USE OF PARCHMENT. 

Parchment, used for writing, is prepared 
from the skins of sheep and goats. These> 
after being steeped in pits impregnated with 
lime, are stretched upon frames, and reduced 
by scraping and paring with sharp instru- 
ments* Pulverized chalk is rubbed on with a 
pumice stone resembling a muller, which 
smooths and softens the skin, and improves its 
color. After it is reduced to something less 
than half its original thickness, it is smoothed 
and dried for use. Vellum is a similar sub* 
stance to parchment, made from the skins of 
Very young calves. 

Next to the papyrus, the skins of animals^ 
in the form of parchment and vellum, were 
extensively used for writing by the ancients 



WONDERS OF ART. 123 

from a remote period. When Eumenes, or 
Attalus, attempted to found a library at Per- 
gamus, 200 years B. C, which should rival the 
famous Alexandrian library, one of the Pto- 
lemies, then king of Egypt, jealous of his suc- 
cess, made a decree prohibiting the exportation 
of papyrus. The inhabitants of Pergamus set 
about manufacturing parchment as a substi- 
tute, and formed their library principally of 
manuscripts on this material, whence it was 
known among the Latins by the name of Per- 
gamena. 

The term membrana was also applied by 
them to parchment. The Hebrews had books 
written on the skins of animals in David's 
time ; and Herodotus relates that the lonians, 
from the earliest period, wrote upon goat and 
sheep skin, from w^hich the hair had merely 
been scraped off. These facts show that parch- 
ment was not invented at Pergamus, but it 
was much improved there, and first made in 
large quantities as an article of trade. Parch- 
ment was at first yellow ; it was afterwards 
made white in Rome. At present any color 
can be given to it. 



THE ART OF DYEING. 



The origin of the art of dyeing is involved 
in that obscurity which pervades the history 
of all those arts connected with the common 



124 WONDERS OF ART. 

wants and necessities of life. They have ori- 
ginated in times beyond the reach of history or 
tradition, and are the offspring of the natural 
faculties of man directed by the great prime- 
val wants of food, shelter, and raiment. The 
art of dyeing is, of course, posterior to many of 
these, and is founded less on the necessities 
than passions of mankind. A love of distinc- 
tion is common to man in every stage of 
civilization, but that passion for admiration 
which is displayed in a love of finery and orna- 
ment, is peculiar to him in his most barbarous 
and uncultivated state. 

Hence savage nations delight in brilliant 
and gaudy colors, and many paint their skins, 
and adorn themselves with feathers, stones, 
and shells of various hues. History has not 
furnished us even with her fables on the origin 
of dyeing ; but from analogy, as well as ob- 
servation of the practice of barbarous nations 
at the present day, we may trace the rude be- 
ginnings from whence the art has sprung. The 
rich and gaudy plumage of birds, the finely- 
spotted skins of animals, colored stones, and 
such other substances as nature herself sup- 
plies, would afford the first materials for sav- 
age finery and dress. The caps and mantles 
of the chiefs of the South Sea Islands, such as 
were brought home by Captain Cook, are com- 
posed almost wholly of feathers richly colored. 

The color which appears to have been ear- 
liest brought to perfection, and which was 



WONDERS OF ART. 125 



held in such high estimation among the an- 
cients, is purple. It was to chance alone, ac- 
cording to the tradition of antiquity, that they 
owed this discovery. A shepherd's dog, insti- 
gated by hunger, having broken a shell on the 
sea-shore, his mouth became stained with such 
a color as excited the admiration of all who 
saw it. They endeavored to apply it to stuffs, 
and succeeded. 

There is some discordance in the details of 
the ancient writers of the circumstances of this 
event. Some place this discovery in the reign 
of Phoenix, second king of Tyre, that is to say, 
a little more than 500 years before Christ ; 
others, at the time that Minos the First reigned 
in Crete, about 1439 years before the Christian 
era. But the greatest number agree in giving 
the honor of the invention of dyeing purple 
stuffs to the Tyrian Hercules. He gave his 
first trials to the king of Phoenicia, who was so 
jealous of the beauty of this new^ color, that he 
forbade the use of it to'all his subjects, reserv- 
ing it for the garments of royalty alone. 

Some authors relate the story differently. 
Hercules' dog having stained his mouth with 
a shell which he had broken on the sea-shore, 
Tyras, a nymph of whom Hercules was en- 
amored, was so charmed with the beauty of 
the color, that she declared to her lover she 
w^ould see him no more till he brought her a 
suit dyed the same. Hercules thought of a 
way to satisfy his mistress ; he collected a 

11* 



126 WONDERS OF ART. 

great number of the shells, and succeeded in 
staining a robe of the color the nymph had 
demanded. 

Snch are the different traditions handed 
down by the ancients of the origin of the pur- 
ple dye. They are evidently blended with 
fiction, yet they may serve to fix the epoch of 
this discovery, which appears to have been 
made about fifteen centuries before the Chris- 
tian era. Whether the purple of Tyre was 
similar to that mentioned in holy writ, as used 
by Moses for the vestments of the high priest, 
and the ornaments of the tabernacle, may ad- 
mit of some dispute, since it is not certain, ac- 
cording to M. Huet, that the word argaman^ 
of the Hebrew text, w^hich all the interpreters 
translate by purpura, means in reality that 
color. 

The testimony of Homer confirms the an- 
tiquity of this discovery. This great poet and 
accurate observer, ascribes to the heroes of 
that age, in which we have supposed it became 
know^n, ornaments and cloths of purple. 

The ancients had such an esteem for this 
color, that it was especially consecrated to the 
service of the Deity. Moses, as we have just 
observed, used stuffs of purple for the works 
of the tabernacle, and the habits of the high 
priest. The Babylonians gave purple habits 
to their idols ; it was the same with most of 
the other people of antiquity. The pagans 
were even persuaded that the purple dye had 



WONDERS OF ART. 127 

a particular virtue, and was capable of appeas- 
ing the wrath of the gods. 

Purple was also the distinguishing mark of 
the greatest dignities from the earliest times. 
We have seen that the king of Phcpnicia, to 
whom tradition says the first essays of this 
color were presented, had it reserved for the 
sovereign. Among the presents which the Is- 
raelites made to Gideon, the scripture makes 
mention of purple habits found among the spoils 
of the kings of Midian. Homer gives us plainly 
to understand, that it only belonged to princes 
to wear this color, and we may remark, that 
this custom was observed by all the nations of 
antiquity. 

It is not easy to give a clear and precise idea 
of the process followed by the ancients in the 
production of this highly valued color. We 
find some details in the works of Aristotle and 
Pliny, in whose days the practice was very 
common, but they are not sufficiently circum- 
stantial. The purple dye, according to Pliny, 
was drawn from many species of shell-fish. 
The best were found near the isle where New 
Tyre was built. They fished for them in other 
parts of the Mediterranean. The coasts of 
Africa were famous for the purple of Getulia. 
The coasts of Europe supplied the purple of 
Laconia, which was held in great esteem. 

The purple has been almost everywhere a 
mark of distinction attached to high birth and 
dignity. It was an ornament of the first officers 



128 WONDERS OF ART. 

of Rome ; but luxury, which was carried to 
great excess in that capital of the world, ren- 
dered the use of it common among the opulent, 
till the emperors reserved to themselves the 
right of wearing it. Soon afterwards it became 
the symbol of their inauguration. They ap- 
pointed officers to superintend the manufacto- 
ries, principally established in PhcBnicia, where 
it was prepared solely for their use. The pun- 
ishment of death was decreed against all who 
should have the audacity to wear it, though 
covered with another color. The penalty so 
tyrannically denounced against this whimsical 
species of treason, doubtless occasioned the loss 
of the art of dyeing purple ; first in the west, 
but much later in the east, where it flourished 
considerably till the eleventh century. 

It appears that some kinds of purple pre- 
served their color for a very long time. Plu- 
tarch, in his Life of Alexander, relates that the 
Greeks found in the treasury of the king of 
Persia a great quantity of purple which had 
not lost its beauty though it was 190 years 
old. 



CURIOUS AUTOMATONS. 

It is said that Archytas of Tarentum, 400 
years before Christ, made a wooden pigeon 
that could fly ; that Archimedes also made 
such automatons ; that Regiomontanus made 



WONDERS OF ART. 129 

a wooden eagle that flew forth from the city, 
met the emperor, saluted him, and returned ; 
also, that he made an iron fly, which flew out 
of his hand at a least, and returned again af- 
ter flying about the room. That Dr. Hook 
made the model of a flying chariot, capable 
of supporting itself in the air. 

Many other automatons have been exhibited 
in the present age, some of which we shall 
describe hereafter. Some figures have been 
formed that could write, and perform many 
other actions in imitation of animals. M. Vau- 
canson made a figure that played on the flute ; 
the same gentleman also made a duck which 
was capable of eating, drinking, and imitating 
exactly the voice of a natural one ; and, what 
is still more surprising, the food it swallowed 
was evacuated in a digested state, or consid- 
erably altered in the principles of solution.; 
also the wings, viscera, and bones, were form- 
ed so as strongly to resem.ble those of a living 
duck, and the actions of eating and drinking 
showed the strongest resemblance, even to the 
muddling the water with its bill. 

M. Le Droz, of La Chaux de Fonds, in the 
province of Neufchatel, has also executed some 
very curious pieces of mechanism ; one was a 
clock, presented to the king of Spain, which 
had, among other curiosities, a sheep that im- 
itated the bleating of a natural one ; and a dog 
watching a basket of fruit, that barked and 
snarled when any one offered to take it away; 



130 WONDERS OF ART. 

besides a variety of human figures, exhibiting 
motions truly surprising. 

Another automaton of Droz'swas the figure 
of a man, about the natural size, which held 
in the hand a metal style, and, by touching a 
spring that released the internal clock-work 
from its stop, the figure began to draw on a 
card; and, having finished its drawings on the 
first card, the figure rested, and then proceeded 
to draw different subjects on five or six other 
cards. The first card exhibited elegant por- 
traits of the king and queen, facing each other ; 
and the figure was observed to lift its pencil 
with the greatest precision, in the transition 
from one point to another, without making the 
least slur. 



AUTOMATON CHESS-PLAYER. 

This astonishing piece of mechanism was 
the invention of Wolfgang de Kempelen, an 
Hungarian gentleman, and aulic counsellor to 
the royal chamber of the domains of the em- 
peror in Hungary, in 1769. 

The room where it is exhibited has an inner 
apartment, in which appears the figure of a 
Turk, as large as life, dressed after the Turk- 
ish fashion, sitting behind a chest of three feet 
and a half in length, two feet in breadth, and 
two feet and a half in height, to which it is at- 
tached by the wooden seat on which it sits. 



WDXDERS OF ART, 131 

The chest is placed upon four Castors, and to- 
gether with the figure, may be easily moved 
to any part of the room. On the plane sur- 
face, formed by the top of the chest, in the 
centre, is raised an immoveable chess-board 
of handsome dimensions, upon which the figure 
has its eyes fixed ; its right arm and hand be* 
ing extended on the chest, and its left arm some- 
what raised, as if in the attitude of holding a 
Turkish pipe, which was originally placed in 
his hands* 

The exhibiter begins by wheeling the chest 
to the entrance of the apartment within which 
it stands, and in face of the spectators. He 
then opens certain doors contrived in the chesty 
two in front and two at the back* at the same 
time pulling out a long shallow drawer at the 
bottom of the chest^made to contain the chess- 
men, a cushion for the arm of the figure to 
rest upon, and some counters* Two lesser 
doors, and a green cloth sci^een, contrived in 
the body of the figure and its lower parts, are 
likewise opened, and the Turkish robe which 
covers them is raised ; so that the construction 
both of the figure and chest internally is dis- 
played. 

In this state the automaton is moved round 
for the examination of the spectators ; and to 
banish all suspicion from the most skeptical 
mind, that any living subject is concealed 
within any part of it, the exhibiter introduces 
a lighted candle into the body of the chest 



132 WONDERS OF AM. 

and figure, by which the interior of each is, in 
a great measure, rendered transparent, and the 
most secret corner is shown. Here it may be 
observed, that the same precaution to remove 
suspicion is used, if requested, at the close as 
at the commencement of a gam.e at chess with 
the automaton. 

The chest is divided by a partition into two 
unequal chambers. That to the right of the 
figure is the narrowest, and occupies scarcely 
one-third of the body of the chest. It is filled 
with little wheels, levers, cylinders, and other 
machinery used in clock-work. That to the 
left contains a few wheels, some small barrels 
with springs, and two quarters of a circle pla- 
ced horizontally. The body and lower parts 
of the figure contain tubes, which seem to be 
conductors to the machinery. After asufiicient 
time, during which each spectator may satisfy 
his scruples and his curiosity, the exhibiter re- 
closes the doors of the chest and figure, and 
the drawer at bottom, makes some arrange- 
ments in the body of the figure, winds up the 
works with a key inserted into a small opening 
on the side of the chest, places a cushion under 
the left arm of the figure, which now rests 
upon it, and invites any individual present to 
play a game of chess. 

In playing a game the automaton makes 
choice of the white pieces, and always has the 
first move. These are small advantages to* 
wards winning the game, which are cheerfully 



Wonders of art. 133 

conceded. It plays with the left hand, the 
right arm and hand being constantly extended 
on the chest, behind which it is seated. This 
slight incongruity proceeded from absence of 
mind in the inventor, who did not perceive his 
mistake till the machinery of the automaton 
w^as too far completed to admit of the mistake 
being rectified. 

At the commencement of a game, the au- 
tomaton moves its head, as if taking a view 
of the board ; the same motion occurs at the 
close of a game* In making a move, it slowly 
raises its left arm from the cushion placed un- 
der it, and directs it towards the square of the 
piece to be moved. Its hand and fingers open 
on touching the piece, which it takes up, and 
conveys to any proposed square* The arm 
then returns with a natural motion to the 
cushion, upon which it usually rests* In tak- 
ing a piece the automaton makes the same 
motions of the arm and hand to lay hold of the 
piece, which it conveys from the board ; and 
then returning to its own piece, it takes it up? 
and places it on the vacant square. These 
motions are performed with perfect correct- 
ness ; and the dexterity with which the arm 
acts, especially in the different operation of 
castling, seems to be the result of spontaneous 
feeling, bending of the shoulder, elbow, and 
knuckles, and cautiously avoiding to touch 
any other piece than that^vhich is to be moved, 
nor ever making a false move« 

12 



134 WoNDEKS OF ART. 

After a move made by its antagonist, the 
automaton remains for a few moments only 
inactive^ as if meditating its next move ; upon 
which the motions of the left arm and hand 
follow. On giving check to the king, it moves 
its head as a signal. When a false move is 
made by its antagonist, which frequently oc- 
curs through curiosity, to observe in what 
manner the automaton will act, (as, for in- 
stance, if a knight be made to move like a 
castle,) the automaton taps impatiently on the 
chest with its right hand, replaces the knight 
on its former square, and, not permitting its 
antagonist to recover his move, proceeds im- 
mediately to move one of its own pieces ; thus 
appearing to punish him for his inattention. 
The little advantage in play which is hereby 
gained, makes the automaton more than a 
match for its antagonist ; and seems to have 
been contemplated by the inventor as an ad* 
ditional resource towards winning the game. 

It is of importance that the person matched 
against the automaton should be attentive in 
moving a piece, to place it precisely in the 
centre of the square, otherwise the figure, in 
attempting to lay hold of the piece, may miss 
its hold, or even sustain some injury in the 
delicate mechanism of the fingers. When the 
person has made a move, no alteration in it 
can take place ; and if a piece be touched it 
must be played somewhere. This rule is 
strictly observed by the automaton. If its an- 



WONDERS OF ART. 135 

tagonist hesitates to move for a considerable 
time, it taps smartly on the top of the chest 
with the right hand, which is constantly ex- 
tended upon it, as if testifying impatience at 
his delay. 

During the time that the automaton is in 
motion, a low sound of clock-work running 
down is heard, which ceases soon after its arm 
returns to the cushion ; and then its antagonist 
may make his move. The works are wound 
up at intervals, after ten or twelve moves, by 
the exhibiter, who is usually employed in walk- 
ing up and down the apartment in which the 
automaton is shown ; approaching, how^ever, 
the chest from time to time, especially on its 
right side. 



AUTOMATON MUSICIANS. 

One of the most celebrated modern con- 
structors of androides was M. Vaucanson, of 
the Academie Royale des Sciences, In 1738, he 
exhibited at Paris a machine capable of play- 
ing several airs on the German flute, of which 
he, in the same year, communicated an exact 
description and explanation to the academj^ 
containing much curious information respect- 
ing the theory, as well as the practice, of that 
musical instrument. 

This machine was a figure about five feet 
and a half in height, situated on the fragment 



136 WONDERS OF ART. 

of a rock, fixed upon a square pedestal, four 
feet and a half high, b}' three and a half broad. 
The front of the pedestal being opened, a clock- 
work movement was seen, by means of which 
a steel axis was made to revolve, having va- 
rious protuberances upon it, to which were 
attached cords thrown over pulleys, and ter- 
minating in the upper boards of nine pairs of 
bellows, w^hich were thus alternately raised 
and let dow^n by the revolution of the axis. 

The disagreeable fluttering noise produced 
by the wind forcing open the valves of the bel- 
lows, was prevented by causing the A^alves to 
open by means of levers, which were acted 
upon by the tightening of the ropes which 
raised the upper boards of the bellows, and 
which, therefore, kept the valve open till the 
boards w-ere allowed to descend. The nine 
pairs of bellows discharged their air into three 
different tubes, which ascending through the 
body of the figure, terminated in three small 
reservoirs in its trunk; these they united into 
one, which ascending to the throat formed the 
cavity of the mouth. To each of the three 
pipes three pairs of bellows were attached. 
The upper boards of one set were pressed 
down with a w^eight of four pounds, those of 
the second set by a weight of two pounds, and 
those of the third by their own weight only. 

Such were the expedients for supplying air 
to the flute-player: another piece of clock- 
work contained within the pedestal, was for 



wondeRkS of art. 1^7 

the purpose of communicating the proper mo- 
tions to his fingers, his h'ps, and his tongue. 
By this movement a cylinder was made to re- 
volve, two feet and a half long, and sixty- four 
inches in circumference, which was divided 
into fifteen equal parts, of an inch and a half 
each. In these divisions were inserted various 
pegs and staples of brass, which raised and 
depressed the ends of fifteen different levers, 
similar to those which produce the sounds of 
a common barrel organ. 

Seven of these levers regulated the motions 
of the seven fingers required to stop the holes 
of a German flute, with which they communi- 
cated by means of steel chains ascending 
through the body of the figure, and directed by 
means of pulleys into the proper angles at the 
shoulder, elbow, &c. Three of the levers re- 
gulated the ingress of the air, being connected 
with the valves of the three reservoirs in the 
body of the figure, which they opened and shut 
at pleasure, so as to produce a stronger or 
weaker, a louder or lower tone. 

By a similar contrivance, four of the levers 
served to give the proper motions to the lips, 
so as to allow a freer passage to the air ; an- 
other contracted them, so as to diminish the 
efflux of air ; the third drew them backward 
from the orifice of the flute, and the fourth 
pushed them forward. The remaining lever 
was employed in the direction of the tongue, 
to which it gave motion, in such a manner as 



138 WONDERS OF ART. 

to open and shut the mouth of the flute at 
pleasure. 

This mechanism, with other ingenious con- 
trivances, enabled M. Vaucanson to produce 
all the motions requisite for an expert player 
on the flute, and which he executed in such a 
manner as to produce music equal in beauty 
to that derived from the exertions of a well- 
practised living performer. The same gentle- 
man afterwards exercised his ingenuity in the 
construction of another musical androides, ex- 
hibited to the academy in 1741, and which 
was not less admired than his flute-player. 

This was a mechanical performer on the 
pipe and tabor, fixed, like the flute-player, on 
a pedestal, habited like a dancing shepherd, 
and capable of playing about twenty airs, con- 
sisting of minuets, rigadoons, and country- 
dances. 



AUTOMATON SEATED AT A PIANO-FORTK 

Among the most celebrated automatical me- 
chanics of the present day is M. Maillardet, a 
native of Switzerland, who has 'constructed 
several androides of unrivalled excellence. 
One of these represents a beautiful female 
seated at a piano-forte, on which she performs 
eighteen tunes. Independent of the expression 
of the music which is produced by the actual 
pressure of her fingers on the keys, all her 



WONDERS OF ART. 139 

motions are elegant and graceful, and so near- 
ly imitating life, that, even on a near approach, 
the deception can hardly be discovered. 

Before commencing a tune, she makes a 
gentle inclination with her head, as if saluting 
the auditors; and remains seemingly intent on 
the performance. Her bosom heaves, her eyes 
move, and appear as naturally to follow her 
fingers over the keys, as if it were real anima- 
tion. The hands regulate the natural tones 
only, for the flats and sharps are played by 
pedals, on which the feet operate. It is like- 
wise to be observed, that although the instru- 
ment resembles a piano-forte, it is in fact an 
organ, the bellows of which are blown bypar- 
dcular parts of the machinery. 

The movements of this figure are effected 
by means of six large springs, which, when 
completely wound up, will preserve their ac- 
tion during an hour. The various parts com- 
posing the machinery are extremely nice and 
complicated, and all admirably adapted to the 
purposes required. Twenty-five leaders, or 
communications, produce the different motions 
of the body, and others, proceeding from the 
centre of motion, are distributed to the differ- 
ent parts of the instrument. A brass fly regu- 
lates and equalizes the whole. The figure is 
so contrived for the convenience of removal, 
that it divides in the middle. It is enclosed in 
a large glass case, and rests above a mahoga- 
ny box containing the machinery, which the 



X 



140 WONDERS OF ART. 

artist throws open for universal inspection. It 
was valued by him at fifteen hundred or two 
thousand pounds, which may in some respect 
prove the extent of the labor and ingenuity in 
framing it. 



AUTOMATON COACH AND HORSES. 

Another extraordinary piece of mechanisna 
is that described by M. Camus, who says he 
constructed it for the amusement of Louis 
XIV., w^hen a child. It consisted of a small 
coach drawn by two horses, in which was the 
figure of a lady, with a footman and page be- 
hind. According to the account given by M. 
Camus himself, this coach being placed at the 
extremity of a table of a detenninate size, the 
coachman smacked his whip, and the horses 
immediately set out, moving their legs in a 
natural manner. 

When the carriage reached the edge of the 
table, it turned at a right angle, and proceeded 
along that edge. When it arrived opposite to 
the place where the king was seated, it stop- 
ped, and the page getting down opened the 
door, upon which the lady alighted, having in 
her hand a petition, w^hich she presented with 
a curtsey. After waiting some time, she again 
curtsied, and re-entered the carriage; the page 
then resumed his place, the coachman whipped 
his horses, which began to move, and the foot- 



WONDERS OF ART. 141 

man, running after the carriage, jumped up 
behind it, and the carriage drove on. 



AUTOMATON SINGING BIRD. 

M. Maillardet, an artist whom we have 
before mentioned, constructed an oval box, 
about three inches in length ; the lid flew up, 
and a bird of beautiful plumage, not larger 
than a small humming-bird, started up from 
its nest. Its wings fluttered, and its bill open- 
ing with the tremulous vibration peculiar to 
singing birds, it began to warble. After con- 
tinuing a succession of notes, which would fill 
a large apartment, it darted down into its 
nest, and the lid closed of itself. 

The machinerv u^as here contained in a 
very narrow compass, and could produce four 
different kinds of warbling: it was put in mo- 
tion by springs, which preserved their action 
during four minutes. It has often created 
great surprise, how such a variety of notes 
could be produced within a space where there 
was evidently no room for a corresponding 
number of pipes. The artist, however, has 
accomplished his purpose by a very simple ex- 
pedient. There is oniy one tube, the vacuity 
of which is shortened or lengthened by a piston 
working inside, and thus producing sounds 
graver or more acute, according as the ma- 
chinery operates upon it. 



142 WONDER& OF ART. 



ST. PETER'S CHURCH AT ROME. 

The cathedral church of St. Peter's, at Romej, 
is esteemed a master-piece of modern archi- 
tecture, and strikes the spectator with admi^ 
ration and pleasing astonishment. The circu- 
lar area which lies before this magnificent 
edifice, is encompassed by a beautiful peristyle 
or colonnade, consisting of 284 marble pillars 
of the Doric order^ which support an architrave, 
adorned with a vast number of statues of saints 
and martyrs. The obelisk already mentioned, 
and a fine fountain on each side of it, are great 
additions to the beauty of this spacious court, 
from whence there is a flight of steps to a grand 
terrace, that leads into the lofty portico before 
the church. 

Over this portico, which is supported by 
pillars 18 feet in circumference, are the statues 
of our Saviour and the twelve apostles ; and 
there is also a fine balcony, v/here the popes 
are crowned, in view of all the people. The 
body of the church, as well as the cupola, 
\vhich is adorned with curious iTK)saic work, is 
sustained by large square pillars, like those of 
St. Paul's cathedral in London ; and under the 
middle of the cupola stands the high altar, 
which is 90 feet in height, being a kind of pa- 
vilion, supported by four wreathed columns of 
brass, adorned with foliage ; and on the top of 
the canopy are four angels of gilt brass, hold- 
ing festoons of flowers, most beautifully carved ; 



WONDERS OF ART. 143 

and between them are figures of children play- 
ing on the cornice. 

The ascent to the dome is by a winding 
staircase, and from thence to the ball, by an 
incommodious flight of stairs, which lies be- 
tween the outer and inner dome. The height 
from the pavement to the top of the cross is 
432 feet, and the diameter of the ball is 80 feet 
4 inches. St. Peter's chair is made of gilded 
brass, and supported by four gigantic figures, 
representing tour fathers of the church, with a 
giory over them, extending quite to the roof. 
Under this chair is an altar, and on each side 
are stately monuments of brass and marble, of 
excellent workmanship. 

it is scarcely possible to describe the riches 
and beauty of the little chapels and altars round 
this church ; yet the gilding, carving, paintings, 
embossed work, brass and marble statues, &c., 
are so well contrived and disposed, that the 
abundance occasions not the least confusion, 
nor does any thing appear superfluous. But 
among all the ornaments of this cathedral, 
none deserves our attention more than the 
mosaic pictures which represent several pieces 
of scriptural and ecclesiastical history, and ex- 
ceed any thing of that kind that was ever 
done by the ancients. 

Here it may be proper to inform the reader, 
that mosaic work is an assemblage of little 
pieces of glass, marble, or precious stones, of 
various colors, cut square, and cemented on a 



144 WONDERS OF ART. 

ground of plasty r, imitating the natural colors 
and gradations of painting. In this sense, it 
includes inlaid work, veneering, &c. ; but in 
its more proper and restrained sense, it only 
comprehends works of stone, metals, and glass^ 
those of wood being distinguished by the name 
of marquetry. 

The mosaic of marble, which at present is 
most in use, serves for the pavements of 
churches and palaces, and the incrustations of 
the walls of the same edifices; but that of 
precious stones is so expensive, that it is sel- 
dom used unless in small works, such as orna- 
ments for altar-pieces, rich tables, &c. The 
mosaic work so much admired in St. Peter's is 
done with colored glass, which kind, though 
now but little used, is extremely brilliant and 
durable. It is laid on a sort of plaster, com- 
posed of lime, fine brick-dust, gum tragacanth, 
the white of eggs, and other ingredients ; the 
pieces of glass being arranged with so much 
justness, and the light and shadow so well ob- 
served, that they appear as smooth as a table 
of marble, and as highly finished as a painting 
in fresco, with this advantage, that they have 
a line lustre, and will last almost forever, 
whereas time effaces all other kinds of paint- 

There is another sort of mosaic work, of a 
more modern invention than any of the former^ 
made with a kind of gypsum or talc, found in 
ohe stone quarries near Paris. Of this talcr 



WONDERS OF ART. 145 

calcined in a kiln, beaten in a mortar, and sift- 
ed, they form a sort of artificial marbles, imi- 
tating precious stones, and of these compose a 
mosaic work, little inferior to the natural stones, 
either in point of lustre or durability. 

Mr. Smollet, speaking of this church, in his 
travels through Italy, saj^s, the Piazza is al- 
together sublime. The double colonnade on 
each side extending in a semicircular sweep, 
the stupendous Egyptian obelisk, the two foun- 
tains, the portico, and the admirable fa9ade of 
the church, form such an assemblage of mag- 
nificent objects as cannot fail to impress the 
mind with awe and admiration ; but the church 
would have produced a still greater effect, had 
it been detached entirely from, the buildings of 
the Vatican. It would then have been a mas- 
ter-piece of architecture, complete in all its 
parts, entire and perfect ; whereas at present, 
it is no more than a beautiful member attached 
to a vast, undigested, and irregular pile of build- 
ing. The great picture of mosaic work, and 
that of St. Peter's bark, tossed by the tempest, 
which appear over the gate of the church, 
though rude in comparison with modern pieces, 
are nevertheless great curiosities, when con- 
sidered as the work of Giotto. 

The tribune of the great altar, consisting of 
four wreathed brass pillars, gilt, supporting a 
canopy, is doubtless very magnificent, bul 
rather overcharged with sculpture, fluting, foli- 
age, festoons, and figures of boys and angels^ 

13 



146 WONDERS OF ART* 

which, with the hundred and twenty-two lamps 
of silver continually burning below, serve to 
dazzle the eyes, and kindle the devotion of the 
ignorant vulgar, rather than to excite the ad- 
miration of a judicious observer. 

There is nothing, however, hi this famous 
structure so worthy of applause as the admira- 
ble symmetry and proportion of its parts. Not- 
withstanding all the carving, gilding, basso- 
relievos, medallions, urns, statues, columns, 
and pictures, with which it abounds, it does 
not, on the whole, appear over-crowded with 
ornaments. When you first enter, your eye is 
filled so equally and regularly, that nothing 
appears stupendous, ^ and the church seems 
considerably smaller than it really is. 

The statues of children, that support the fonts 
of holy-water, when observed from the door, 
seem to be of the natural size ; but as you 
draw near, you perceive they are gigantic. In 
the same manner, the figures of the doves, with 
olive-branches in their beaks, which are rep- 
resented on the wall, appear to be within your 
reach ; but as you approach them, they recede 
to a considerable height, as if they had flown 
upwards to avoid being taken. 



ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, LONDON. 

This magnificent cathedral, one of the finest 
Protestant churches in the world, built in the 



WONDERS OF ART. 147 

purest style of Grecian architecture, stands 
upon an eminence to the north of the river 
Thames. The first stone was laid by Sir 
Christopher Wren, on the 21st of June, 1675, 
in the reign of King Charles II. ; the design 
was completed in 1710, but the decorations 
were not finished till the year 1723. 

This cathedral is built of fine Portland stone, 
after the model of St. Peter's at Rome ; having 
two ranges of pilasters on the outside, one 
above another, the lower range of the Corin- 
thian order, and the upper of the composite. 
The spaces between the arches of the windows, 
and the architecture of the pilasters, are filled 
up with various decorations. 

The west front is beautified with a most 
magnificent portico, supported by tw^elve massy 
columns of the Corinthian order, and over those 
are eight composite columns, supporting a 
beautiful pediment, in which the history of St. 
Paul's conversion is cut in bas-relief. The as- 
cent to this portico is by a flight of black mar- 
ble steps ; and over each corner of this front 
is an elegant turret. On the south side of the 
church is a portico with a dome, supported by 
six columns, and on the pediment is a phoenix 
in flames, with the word resurgam carved un- 
derneath it. The north portico corresponds 
with that on the south, and its pediment is em- 
bellished with the royal arms and other orna- 
ments. 

In the centre of the building rises a stupen- 



148 WONDERS OF ART. 

dous dome or cupola ; and about twenty-five feet 
above the roof of the church is a circular 
range of columns, terminated by an entabla- 
ture which supports a handsome gallery, 
adorned with a stone balustrade. On the sum- 
mit of the dome is an elegant balcony, from 
which rises a beautiful lantern, adorned with 
Corinthian columns, and the whole is termina- 
ed by a gilt ball and cross. 

On the inside, the cupola is supported by 
eight stupendous pillars curiously adorned ; 
the roof of the choir is supported by six pillars, 
and the roof of the church by two ranges, con- 
sisting of twenty more. 

Round the inside of the cupola runs a hand- 
some iron gallery, where a whisper or even the 
ticking of a watch may be heard distinctly at 
the distance of a hundred feet. 

The top of the dome is finely painted by Sir 
James Thornhill ; the floor of the choir is paved 
with marble, and the altar is adorned with four 
pilasters, painted and veined Vv^ith gold, in imi- 
tation of lapis lazuli. 

The length of this cathedral from east to 
west, including the portico, is 500 feet ; its 
breadth, including the north and south porticoes, 
311 ; and its height, from the ground to the 
top of the cross, is 344 feet. 

This pile of building occupies an area of 
six acres, and is railed round with an iron bal- 
ustrade, which is said to have weighed nearly 
three hundred tons, and to have cost upwards 



WONDERS OF ART. 149 

of 1 1,000/. The whole expense of building the 
cathedral amounted to 736,752/. 2^. Sd, 

The clock-works are well deserving the at- 
tention of the curious. The fine-toned bell 
which strikes the hours, is clearly distinguish- 
able from any other in the metropolis, and has 
been distinctly heard at the distance of 20 
miles- The weight of the bell is 1 1 ,474 pounds. 
The clock-dial is 57 feet in circumference. 
The length of the minute-hand is eight feet. 
A model of the latter is kept in the gallery 
leading to the library, for the inspection of the 
curious. 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

One of the noblest specimens of Gothic ar- 
chitecture in England, is the Abbey of St. Pe- 
ter at Westminster, so called from having been 
the church of a convent dedicated to St. Peter, 
which was destroyed by the Danes about the 
year 850. It was rebuilt by King Edgar, and 
enlarged by Edward the Confessor ; but the 
present magnificent edifice was erected during 
the reign of Henry III. On the dissolution in 
1539, this great monastery underwent the 
common fate of the religious houses ; and the 
abbot, William Benson, having subscribed to 
the king's supremacy, was rewarded with the 
office of first dean to the new foundation, con- 
sisting of a dean and 12 prebendaries. In 

13* 



150 WONDERS OF ART. 

1560 it was changed into a collegiate churchy 
consisting of a dean and 12 secular canons, 
and other members ; 2 schoolmasters, 40 schol- 
ars, 12 almoners, and several officers and ser- 
vants. 

The form of this church is that of a long 
cross ; its length is 489 feet ; the breadth of 
the west end 66; that of the cross aisle 189 ; 
and the height of the middle roof about 92 feet. 
At the west end are two noble towers, built 
by Sir Christopher Wren ; the nave and cross 
aisle are supported by 50 slender pillars of 
Sussex marble, about twelve and a half feet 
asunder, besides pilasters. There are 94 win- 
dows in the upper and lower ranges, all of. 
which, with the arches, roofs, and doors, are 
in the ancient Gothic style. 

The interior of the church is admirably ex- 
ecuted, and the perspectives very good, par- 
ticularly that of the grand aisle. The new 
choir, which is the work of the late Mr. Keen, 
is executed in the ancient Gothic style, but the 
architect has so happily blended simplicity 
with ornament, as to produce the most pleas- 
ing effect. It has also this peculiar advantage, 
that it can, upon solemn occasions, be easily 
removed, and may be replaced without much 
trouble or expense. The altar is extremely 
beautiful. 

The great west window, set up in the year 
1735, is finely painted, with representations 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the twelve 



WONDERS OF ART. 151 

patriarchs ; Moses and Aaron ; and the coats 
of arms belonging to King Sebert. Edward the 
Confessor, Queen Elizabeth, George II., and 
Dean Wileocks, Bishop of Rochester. 

In a smaller window on the right, is a figure 
supposed to be that of Edward the Black 
Prince, and on the opposite is another, which 
is conjectured to represent Richard II., but 
the colors being of a water blue, the features 
cannot be particularly distinguished. The 
three windows at the east end contain figures 
of St. John the Evangelist, Militus, Bishop of 
London, and two pilgrims ; and the beautiful 
north window, which was put up in 1722, re- 
presents our Saviour, with his twelve apostles 
and the four Evangelists. 

In this venerable structure are 12 sepulchral 
chapels, containing several curious monuments 
of the sovereigns and nobility of Great Bri- 
tain : a few of the most remarkable are in- 
serted in this work for the entertainment of 
our readers. 

The chapel of Henry VII. is situated to the 
east of the abbey, and is, in point of elegance, 
nearly the rival of that at King's College, 
Cambridge. The royal founder expended 
£14,000 on this building, which he expressly 
designed as the mausoleum of himself and his 
descendants. The ascent to the interior of 
this chapel is from the east end of the abbey, 
by steps of black marble leading to the gates, 
which are of brass, most curiously wrought in 



162 WONDERS OF ART. 

the manner of frame-work, having a rose and 
portcullis alternately on every other panel. 

On the first entrance the eye is naturally 
directed to the roof, which is divided into six- 
teen circles of curious workmanship, and sup- 
ported by 12 stately pillars, enriched with fig- 
ures, fruitage, and other ornaments. The 
stalls are of brown wainscot, with Gothic 
canopies, and the arms and banners of the 
knights produce a fine effect. There are many 
statues in niches ; and in the body of the cha- 
pel is the superb tomb of the royal founder 
and his queen, with their figures recumbent in 
brass. Here also are some elegant monuments 
erected to the memory of Margaret, Countess 
of Richmond, Queen Elizabeth, the unfortunate 
Mary Stuart, and several other illustrious per- 
sonages. 

Between the knights' stalls, under a broad 
marble pavement, is the royal vault, where 
repose the bodies of James I., William III., 
Anne, and George II. The length of this chap- 
el is 99 feet, the breadth 66, and the height 54. 

At the entrance of St. Edmund's Chapel is 
an alabaster statue of John of Eltham, second 
son of King Edward II. ; his habit is that of 
an armed knight, and his head is encircled with 
a coronet of leaves. On a Grecian altar in 
the same chapel sits a statue of Lady Eliza- 
beth Russel, who is commonly said to have 
lost her life by accidentally pricking her fin- 
gers. Here also are monuments to the me- 



WONDERS OF ART. 153 

mories of Lady Jane Seymour, William de 
Valence, and Mary, Countess of Strafford, wife 
to the unfortunate Viscount, who suffered de- 
capitation, in the reign of Charles I., on Tower 
Hill. 

The chapel of St. Michael contains some of 
the finest monuments of Westminster Abbey. 
The tomb of Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale 
and his lady, is the work of M. Roubiliac, and 
is justly admired by all judges of merit. Above, 
is represented a lady expiring in the arms of 
her husband ; beneath, slyly peeping from a 
tomb, the king of terrors presents his dreadful 
visage, and points his unerring dart at the 
sinking figure, while the distracted husband 
seems to clasp her to his bosom, and attempts 
to defend her from the fatal stroke. 

Opposite to this beautiful monument, is that 
of the Earl and Countess of Monutrath, which 
is equally entitled to our admiration from the 
grandeur of the design, and the extraordinary 
lightness of the execution. On the summit, is 
a representation of the celestial mansions, and 
their blessed inhabitants ; and on a sarcopha- 
gus beneath, is the figure of the countess, in 
the attitude of rising from the grave and sup- 
ported by an angel, who, with his hand, points 
up to heaven, where a seat is prepared for 
her reception, and where another angel waits 
to crown her with a wreath of glory. 

The chapel of St. Andrew contains monu- 
ments to the memory of several honorable per- 



154 WONDERS OF ART. 

sonages ; but the most elegant are those of 
Sir Henry Norris, famous for his gallant con- 
duct in the Low Countries during the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth ; and Susanna Jane David- 
son, who is represented just expiring, Death 
having pierced her breast with his fatal dart ; 
an angel supports the female figure, and ap- 
pears to offer consolation by pointing to the 
joys of futurity. 

The tombs in the area and aisles of the 
church are far too numerous to admit of de- 
scription in a work of this nature. Suffice it, 
therefore, to say that, among the most cele- 
brated, the spectator may recognise those of 
General Wolfe, the Earl of Mansfield, William 
Shakspeare, Matthew Prior, John Milton, James 
Thomson, Nicholas Rowe, John Gay, Oliver 
Goldsmith, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Frederick 
Handel, Sir Isaac Newton, and many others, 
who have acquired immortal reputation by the 
brilliancy of their genius, or the happy result 
of their extraordinary exertions. 



THE IRON STEAM-SHIP, GREAT BRITAIN. 

This splendid ship, the largest we believe in 
the world, is built entirely of iron, with the 
exception of the boarding of her decks and 
some of her cabin fittings and carved wrorks. 
She has 26 state-rooms with one bed each, 



Wonders of art* 155 

and 113 with two, so that in addition to het 
officers and crew she can accommodate 253 
passengers, each of whom can be provided 
with a single bed, and without making up a 
single sofa, or any other temporary inconve- 
nience. The saloon is fitted with rows of 
dining-tables, of sufficient capacity to admit of 
860 persons sitting down to dinner at one time* 
with perfect convenience and comfort. In the 
construction of the hull and engines, the enor-^ 
mous quantity of 1500 tons of iron have been 
used ; and eight walks round the principal 
deck are about equal to a mile in length. 

The arrival of this mammoth steam-ship at 
New York, has produced an interest corre^ 
spending with the magnitude of the enterprise. 
The triumphs of art, now applied through the 
power of steam, are supplanting the triumphs 
of war ; and hastening, it is to be hoped, the 
period when the nations of the earth shall lay 
aside the implements of destruction for the im- 
plements of a liberal commerce^ and a higher 
civilization. Commerce and the arts are uni- 
ting with Christianity, in the great work of hu-* 
man progress. It is with this vieAV of the subject, 
that we hail every new achievement of art, 
every beneficent movement in the commercial 
world. 

The Great Britain left Liverpool on the 26th 
July, 1845, at 4 o'clock, P. M. She encoun- 
tered strong westerly winds and a heavy sea 
on her voyage, as well as fog during the last 



156 WONDERS OF ART. 

five days, which compelled her to go slowly at 
times, and of course considerably retarded her 
progress. She reached the dock or wharf in 
New York on the lOth of August, after having 
stopped at quarantine ground, making an aver- 
age of rather more than eight and a half knots 
or nautical miles per hour on the passage. 
The ship during the worst of the weather, says 
Capt. Hosken, behaved well, and gave promise 
of a good and safe sea boat, under the worst 
circumstances ; her movements are all remark- 
ably easy, whether pitching or rolling. The 
latter, Capt. Hosken is of opinion, will be very 
materially lessened by the application of ridge 
keels, intended to be put on next winter. 

The Great Britain is the largest steam-ship 
in the world. The next in size is, we believe, 
the English ship "Precursor," of 2,500 tons, in 
India, which has been found to answer well. 
First-rate men of war are so different, as not 
to admit of a comparison ; their size varies from 
500 to 1,000 tons less than the Great Britain* 
The *• Pennsylvania," built at Philadelphia, is 
the largest. 

The Great Britain is divided into compart- 
ments, to each of which the engine-pumps, by 
the means of pipes and cocks, can be applied. 
The water-tight divisions of each compart- 
ment add greatly to the strength of the ship, 
either as struts or ties. All steamers, whether 
on the score of humanity, or for the preserva- 
tion of property, ought to be so divided, for if 



WONDERS OF ART. 157 

a vessel be divided into five or six compart- 
ments, and any one of them should from acci- 
dent fill, her buoyancy would be slightly affect- 
ed. If two compartments filled, and those two 
were not at the extremes, the extreme com- 
partments would still keep her afloat. If two 
consecutive compartments, either forward or 
aft, filled, it is certain if she went down head 
or stern foremost that she would be some time 
about it, — long enough, probably, to give oppor- 
tunity for all the boats to be got in readiness. 

The celebrated Nemesis struck on the Eng- 
lish Stones, in the British Channel, going nine 
or ten knots ; she slid off*, after making such a 
slit in a plate in the forward compartment as 
filled it. She steamed several hours with the 
compartment full, until she obtained additional 
pumps in Mount's Bay, with which the space 
was pumped out, and the leak stopped. At 
Portsmouth she was examined, and drawings 
of the damage were made by an employe of 
the company ; she was repaired in a few hours, 
at an expense of about £30, and then started 
for China. 

The Brigand, a large iron steamer, trading 
between Liverpool and Bristol, struck on sunk- 
en rocks off" the Scilly Islands, filled a forward 
compartment, and had some part of her paddle- 
wheel forced so far into the engine-room, as to 
damage the plates, and fill that part also. She 
remained afloat, in consequence of the remain- 
ing compartments, long enough to enable the 

14 



158 WofflEBS OV AM. 

crew to save themselves and their kits com- 
fortably, and then went down in deep water* 
The Wye, trading between Bristol and Chep- 
stow^ was cut down more than a foot below the 
water-line by one of the Irish steamers, her stem 
having gone into the little Wye as far as the 
forward companion ; she continued her voyage, 
and landed all her passengers as safel}^ but not 
quite as fast, as if nothing had happened ; in 
her case, it was the foremost compartment that 
filled. 

The Sylph, although a slight vessel, and of 
wood, had compartments ; ^le two foremost 
filled, but the after one kept her long enough 
afloat to enable all who were not killed or in- 
jured to effect their escape. The case of the 
Vanguard iron steamer, which for ten days 
was exposed to heavy breakers, on the rocks 
in White's Bay, near Cork, may also be men- 
tioned, both as a proof of the strength of iron, 
and of the value of compartments. 

The length of the keel is 289 feet. Total 
length, 322 feet. Beam, 51 feet. Depth, 32 
feet 6 inches. Feet of water when loaded, 16 
feet. Displacement, 2,984 tons. Tonnage by 
old measurement, 3,443 tons. Plates of keel 
nearly 1 inch thick. Plates of bottom varying 
to f of an inch at extremes, and to f ths gener- 
ally. Topsides | an inch, and at the extreme 
aft y\ths. The ribs are framed of angle iron, 
6 inches by 3| inches, | inch thick, and yfths- 
Distance of ribs from centre to centre, amid- 



WONDERS OF ART. 159 

ships, 14 inches, increasing to 21 inches at the 
ends. 

Ten iron sleepers run from the engine-room, 
gradually diminishing in number to the fore- 
end of the ship and under the boilers, the plat- 
form of which they support ; in midships they 
are 3 feet 3 inches in depth, supported by an- 
gle irons in the form of inverted arches, and a 
short distance from each other. 

She has five water-tight partitions ; stows 
1,200 tons of coal — 1,000 tons of measurement. 
The engines weigh 340 tons. The boilers 200 
tons, and hold 2,000 tons of water. The main 
shaft is 28 inches in diameter in the centre, 
and 24 inches in the bearings ; in the rough, 
before turned, it weighed 16 tons. It has been 
lightened by a hole of 10 inches diameter bored 
through. Astream of cold water passes through 
the cranks and this hole when the engines are 
at work. 

The screw shaft is in one long and two short 
or coupling parts : the part next the engine, 
solid, 28 feet, by 16. inches diameter; the hol- 
low intermediate shaft 65 feet, by 2 feet 8 
inches diameter. The screw part is 25 feet 6 
inches, and also 16 inches diameter. The total 
length is 130 feet, and it weighs altogether 38 
tons. The screw is of six arms, 15 feet 6 inches 
diameter, 25 feet pitch, and weighs 4 tons. 

The main drum is 18 feet diameter, and 
drives 4 chains, weighing 7 tons. The screw 
shaft drum is 6 feet diameter, and the weight 



160 WONDERS OF ART. 

with the pull when working is equal to 85 tons 
on the bearings of the main shaft. The cylin- 
ders are 4 in number, 88 inches each. Stroke, 
6 feet. Power, 1000 horses. The condensers 
are of wrought iron, 12 feet by 8, and 5 deep. 
Under the whole space of the engines up to the 
top, the angle irons are doubled. The upper, 
main, and saloon decks are of wood, the two 
cargo decks are of iron. The officers and sea- 
men are all accommodated on two decks under 
the forecastle. 

She has six masts, fitted with iron rigging, 
adopted in consequence of its offering two- 
thirds less resistance than hemp, a great point 
going head to wind. It was wished that five 
should have been the complement, but there 
was some difficulty in adjusting that number, 
and the alternative was either four or six. 
Economy of labor is a principle which has, in 
a great degree, affected the mode of rigging 
both the Great Western and the Great Britain. 
Nothing is so difficult to handle, under a va- 
riety of circumstances, as the sails of a steamer, 
unless the engine be stopped, which can never 
be allowed in Atlantic steaming, where on- 
ward — and for ever onward — is the rule. 
The greater the number of masts, the more 
handy the sails, and the smaller the number of 
seamen required to handle them. 

If these ships had been rigged as ships ordi- 
narily are, the former would require a crew of 
more than 100 seamen, and the latter that of 



WONDERS OF ART. 161 

a large frigate. Divided, as the canvass is, 
and reduced, the former only requires 20 sea- 
men before the mast, while thirty are enough 
for the latter. In the Great Britain there is in 
fact but one sail, the square mainsail, which, 
under any circumstances, can require all hands 
to furl it. Five masts of the six are hinged for 
lowering, when, in the captain's judgment, 
contrary gales shall appear to have set in, as 
the westerlies do at certain seasons of the year, 
prevailing for months in the Atlantic. To a 
seaman's eye they have a look of insecurity ; 
but if the strain which a fixed mast will stand 
is compensated by additional shrouding and 
stays, either in strength or quantity, the same 
end is attained. The after masts could not be 
stepped in the ordinary manner, on account of 
the space occupied by the screw shaft. In 
theory, the principle of lowering is evidently 
right, because a steam-ship's masts and rigging, 
going head to wind, offer more resistance than 
the hull out of water, and there seems no rea- 
son to fear the result of practice. 

The displacement of the Great Britain is less 
than 3,000 tons when loaded, and with 1,200 
tons of coal on board ; while the displacement 
of a first-rate, with all stores on board, is bet- 
ter than 4,500 tons, although the former is more 
than a third the longer ship. 

The Great Britain, unless disabled in her 
machinery, will not use her canvass with a 
fair wind, unless it blows from a little gale up 

14* 



162 WONDERS OF ART, 

to a hurricane ; all her sails, except the square 
and gaff-topsails, being really double thread 
No. 1 canvass, or storm sails. 

The plain sails of a fifty-two-gun frigate, 
that is, without counting royals, staysails, and 
steering sails, number something short of 
5,000 yards of canvass, and the plain sails, 
that is, omitting the steering sails, etc., of the 
Great Britain, amount to 4,943 yards ; or in 
other words, they are alike in quantity. There 
are more points of sailing in which the centre 
of effort of the frigate's or square-rigged ship's 
canvass will tell better, but there are some in 
which the low canvass of the steamer will have 
the advantage, and no steamer has any busi- 
ness with lofty spars or flying kites. If cir- 
cumstances should bring the Great Britain to 
canvass alone, as her motive power, she will 
do as well or better than her neighbors, al- 
though the screw will stop her way perhaps 
fifteen per cent. In such an emergency the 
captain would disconnect it, and it would re- 
* volve then in the proportion due to the ship's 
way, or not impede her as if it were a fixture. 

She carries four large life-boats of iron, and 
two boats of wood, in the davits, and one large 
life-boat on deck ; they are built according to 
a patent, taken out by Mr. Guppy, and are 
capable of carrjdng 400 people. — Merchants* 
Magazine. 



WONDERS OF ART. 163 



HERSCHEL'S GRAND TELESCOPE. 

To lead to a clearer comprehension of the 
principle on which the telescopes of Dr. Her- 
schel are constructed, it is necessary to advert 
to those of Newton and Gregory. The former 
of these consists of a tube, towards the end of 
which a concave mirror is placed. The con- 
verging rays, before they reach the focus, are 
made to fall on a plane mirror, placed at an 
angle of forty-five degrees, and thrown up- 
ward to the focus of a convex lens, fixed in 
the upper side of the telescope, through which 
the eye looks down on the object. The latter 
consists of a tube, on which a concave mirror, 
having a hole in its centre, is placed. Any 
paraJlel rays from an object falling on this 
mirror, will, after reflection, form an inverted 
image at its focus. This image, however, is 
intercepted by a smaller mirror, which reflects 
it back to an eye-glass in the hole of the large 
mirror, through which the observer views the 
object. 

In the telescopes made by Dr. Herschel, the 
object is reflected by a mirror, as in the Gre- 
gorian telescope, and the rays are intercepted 
by a lens at a proper distance, so that the ob- 
server has his back to the object, and looks 
through the lens at the mirror. The magnify- 
ing power is the same as in the Newtonian 
telescope ; but there not being any second re- 
flector, the brightness of the object viewed in 



164 WONDERS OF ART. 

the Herschel telescope, is greater than that in 
the Newtonian telescope. 

The tube of Dr. Herschel's grand telescope 
is 39 feet 4 inches in length, and 4 feet 10 
inches in diameter, every part being made of 
iron. The concave polished surface of the 
great mirror is 4 feet in diameter, its thickness 
three and a half inches, and its weight up- 
wards of 2000 pounds. This noble instrument 
was, in all its parts, constructed under the 
sole direction of Dr. Herschel : it was begun 
in the year 1785, and completed August 28th, 
1789, on which day was discovered the sixth 
satellite of Saturn. It magnifies six thousand 
times. 



FORTRESS OF GIBRALTAR. 

This impregnable fortress, belonging to Great 
Britain, is situated upon a tongue of land, at 
the southern extremity of Europe, on the north 
side of the narrow sea which forms a com- 
munication between the Mediterranean and the 
Atlantic, called the Straits of Gibraltar. A 
fortified line is drawn by the Spaniards from 
sea to sea, to cut off' the communication of the 
garrison with the rest of Spain. The length 
of Gibraltar, from the lines on the Spanish side, 
to the most southern part, called Europa pointy 
is about three English miles, and the circum- 
ference seven. 



WONDERS OF ART. 165 

On the west side stands the town of Gibral- 
tar, on the water side, and is defended by a 
line of ramparts, forming a continued fortifi- 
cation from the norlh and perpendicular side 
of the rock, to the extremity of the Moors' 
wall, which nearly divides the rock into two 
equal parts. This wall was built about the 
year one thousand, and runs from the water- 
side about one-third of the way up with a very 
rapid ascent, till it meets an inaccessible part 
of the rock, where it was discontinued, and 
another built farther to the south at an accessi- 
ble place. The fortifications have since been 
continued round the rock, and rendered impreg- 
nable by works cut into the interior on the 
north and eastern side, where it is perpendicu- 
lar. 

The English, since they became masters of 
this place, have been indefatigable in excava- 
ting the rock, and forming subterraneous walks, 
5000 feet in length, galleries and caverns, into 
which the besieged might retreat during an 
attack, in case the outer works should be car- 
ried by an enemy. These galleries form sev- 
eral tiers or ranks (23 in number) of batteries, 
from 300 to 1300 feet above the surface of the 
flat country below, called the neutral ground^ 
which is between the Spanish and English 
lines. Were a general battering of all the 
embrasures to take place at the same time, it 
would afford one of the grandest spectacles in 
the world. It would resemble a huge monster, 



166 WONDERS OF ART. 

with a thousand mouths, each vomiting out 
thunder, smoke, and red-hot balls. 

The cannon have all been so well practised, 
and are so well elevated, that the object aimed 
at is hit with as much certainty as with a fu- 
see. The whole surface of the rock, outside, 
is planted with cannon, in' every place where 
it is possible to make an attack, even with one 
or two men only at a time. Should the water 
lines be carried by an enemy, they would have 
to dispute the ascent to the top of the moun- 
tain, inch by inch, and in many places, by nar- 
row passes, between stupendous rocks, which 
are not more than 25 or 30 feet wide. Should 
they even succeed and obtain possession of the 
whole surface of the mountain, they would 
have to combat with an army in the bowels 
of the rock, against a thousand mines and other 
artifices, which would render the situation of 
the conquerors very unsafe. It is said there 
are close quarters in the rocks for more than 
twelve thousand men, and provisions for three 
years always stored in the rocks, with a suffi- 
cient quantity of ammunition. 

Gibraltar was first fortified in the modern 
style in the reign of the emperor Charles V. 
It was taken by the English in 1704. It has 
since been repeatedly besieged, but always 
without success. In July, 1799, commenced 
the celebrated siege by the combined forces of 
France and Spain ; every scheme which in- 
genuity could devise, which rashness could 



WoMDfiRS 0^ ART* 16? 

halzafd, or force execute, was tried by the be- 
siegers to no purpose^ when^ in 1783j the siege 
Was abandoned. 



ANCIENT ROAD^. 

The construction of good public roads wa^ 
Considered an object of such primary import^ 
anCe by the ancient Romans, that all the chief 
cities of their vast empire were connected by 
roads, far superior to any that have been exe^ 
cuted in later timeSj and of a much more ex- 
pensive kind than the. best railroads in this 
country. The Roman roads were made so firm 
and solid, that they have not entirely yielded 
to the dilapidations of fifteen centuries. They 
rendered an intercourse with the most distant 
provinces easy at all times, and rapid when 
occasion required. These roads ran nearly in 
direct lines from city to city, and have been 
the subject of universal astonishment and ad^ 
miration^ 

Natural obstructions were removed or over- 
come by the efforts of labor or art i whether 
they consisted of marshes, lakes^ rivers, of 
mountains. In flat districts the middle part 
of the road was ra^ised into a terrace which 
commanded the adjacent country^ It was 
formed of different layers of stones and gravely 
bedded in excellent cement, the upper surface 
being paved with stonce Near the capital the 



168 WONDERS OF ART* 

pavement was of granite ; in other parts hard 
lava was used, worked in irregular polygons, 
and so accurately joined, that Palladio thinks 
they must have used sheets of lead as moulds 
to take the various angles and contours for 
fitting them together. In mountainous districts 
the roads were alternately cut through moun- 
tains and raised above the valleys, so as to 
preserve a level line or a uniform inclination, 
as was most adapted for the route. They 
founded on piles where the ground was not 
solid, and raised the road by strong side walls, 
or by arches and piers where it was necessary 
to gain elevation. 

The Roman roads were much narrower than 
ours, the width of the carriage-way, as pre- 
scribed by the laws of the twelve tables, being 
only eight Roman feet,* but their carriages 
were also narrower than ours, the width of 
the wheel track not being more than three 
feet. The paved parts of their great military 
roads were wider, being 16 Roman feet, with 
two sideways, each 8 feet wide, separated 
from the middle way by two raised paths of 
2 feet each ; so that the entire width of the 
principal military roads did not exceed from 
36 to 40 feet. The whole depth of materials 
was about three feet, and built in a most solid 
manner. 

There were 29 military roads leading from 

« The Enfflish foot is to tho Romau as 1000 : 967. 



I 



WONDERS OF ART* 169 

Rome, some of which extended to the extreme 
parts of the empire — ^their total extent being, 
according to Rondelet, 52,964 Roman miles, or 
about 48,500 English miles. 

The construction of the Roman roads was 
an object of state policy ; with us it is the 
commercial interests of the country which 
feel the important advantages of a secure, 
certain, and speedy system of intercourse for 
the disposal and exchange of commodities. 
And since it is desirable among the people of 
the same state, that all should enjoy as nearly 
the same advantages for trade as the nature 
of things will allow, the power of internal 
communication ought to be encouraged, and 
its benefits extended to every part of the coun- 
try of which the agricultural, mineral, or man- 
ufactured products, are of sufficient import- 
ance to render the communication beneficial 
to the state. 



RAILROADS. 

Among the wonderful improvements of the 
present age is the construction of railroads. 
The principal object of these roads is to form 
hard, smooth, and durable surfaces for the 
wheels of the carriage to run upon. These 
surfaces consist of parallel rails of iron, raised 
a little above the general level of the ground, 
with a gravelled road between the rails, where 

15 



170 WOi^DMS O^ Aftt. 

horse-power is to be used; consequently a 
railroad combines the advantages of a good 
foothold for horses, and of smooth and hard 
surfaces for the wheels to roll upon. The 
wheels of railroad carriages are furnished with 
proper guides to keep them on the rails, and 
the circumferences of the wheels are made 
hard and smooth* 

By thus using iron, we obtain a smooth, hard, 
and even surface, at an expense comparative- 
ly small ; and the moving power has very lit- 
tle more than the friction of the axis to contend 
against. A carriage moving under such cir- 
cumstances bears the nearest analogy to a 
body impelled on a smooth surface of ice» 
where it is well known that the velocity which 
may be given by a small power is immense ; 
what the rails want in smoothness being com- 
pensated by the use of wheels. The effect of 
the air's resistance, and of the increase of fric* 
tion, is the same in both cases. 

In discussing the merits of railroads, we 
have to compare them with turnpike roads 
and canals. Railroads give the certainty of 
the turnpike road with a saving of seven- 
eighths of the power ; one horse on a railroad 
producing as much effect as eight horses on a 
turnpike road. In the effect produced by a 
given power, the railroad is about a mean be- 
tween the turnpike and a canal, where the 
rate is about three miles per hour ; but where 
greater speed of conveyance is desirable, the 



WONDERS OF ART. 171 

railroad equals the canal in effect, and even 
surpasses it. As much as had been the gain 
of railroads, when horse-power was used, the 
gain is immeasurably greater in the use of 
steam for a moving power. 

In this country, the lumbering wagon, bear- 
ing its heavy loads, was formerly seen jolting 
its victims as it toiled up hills and over tire- 
some roads. Agricultural products, especially 
those in the interior of the west, were accu- 
mulated in the granaries, and decayed because 
they could not be transported to a market, and 
merchandise which might have found ample 
profits, were means of transportation provided, 
was heaped up in the w^arehouses, without 
purchasers, or was sold at a low price at ev- 
ery chance sale which presented itself. The 
population at remote points were kept in ig- 
norance of passing events both at home and 
abroad, until a long time after they had hap- 
pened ; of events too, which, had they been 
known, might have exercised an important 
bearing upon their interests and happiness. 
The w^hole country was manacled as with 
chains, to struggle on against the obstacles 
which nature ever throws in the path of hu- 
man industry, as trials of the soul. 

Let us contrast that state of things with the 
present improved condition of the means of 
intercommunication. Upon the land and the 
water, upon the surfaces of all our wide rivers 
and lakes, and upon our hills and valleys, we 



172 WONDERS OF ART. 

now see the smoke of the steamship, and hear 
the clattering of the raih'oad car, rushing 
through the waves against wind and tide, pro- 
pelling huge fabrics with amazing speed, or 
drawing their splendid saloons almost with the 
rapidity of lightning along their iron tracks. 
It seems indeed as if our own age is destined 
to realize the gorgeous scenes of oriental fic- 
tion, their floating palaces wafted along by 
melodious music, with banners streaming from 
their mirrored walls, their flying dragons rush- 
ing through the air, who counted time and 
space as nothing. These are the triumphs of 
our own age, the laurels of mechanical phi- 
losophy, of untrammelled mind, and a liberal 
commerce ! 

Railroads were first introduced into this 
country less than twenty years since, and have 
been making gradual progress from that time. 
The system of railroads is primarily designed 
to unite the distant portions of the country, 
and to transport their respective products to 
the most profitable markets. Accordingly, it 
has been found proper to extend the large 
lines from the principal marts of trade and 
commerce to important points, which may form 
a nucleus to the surrounding country, each line 
possessing diverging tracks to the commercial 
depots which border them. If we survey the 
map of the United States, we shall find that 
the termini of these lines, at both ends, rest at 
the principal commercial towns of the country, 



WONDERS OF ART. 173 

both in the east and west. The principal ter- 
mini of each track upon the Atlantic seaboard 
may be found in Boston, New York, Philadel- 
phia, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, and 
Savannah. From these grand points of ship- 
ment, the railroad tracks run across the inte- 
rior, and intersecting in their course the most 
prominent villages or cities, terminate at the 
grand marts of western commerce, and the 
shores of their navigable waters. 

The advantages of these works are obvious, 
and must be permanently felt in our own widely 
extended territory. These advantages are de- 
rived from the fact that, notw^ithstanding the 
vast expense of their construction, which will 
require a long time to return the outlays into 
the coffers of the stockholders, they neverthe- 
less afford safe, elegant, and rapid conveyan- 
ces for travellers, and convenient means for 
the transportation of articles of bulk from 
place to place. The application of steam to 
this mode of conveyance evokes from the ele- 
ments of nature a powder which is fleeter than 
the swiftest antelope, and more mighty than 
that of the strongest elephant. 

We believe that the steam-engine, upon 
land, is to be one of the most valuable agents 
of the present age, because it is swifter than 
the greyhound, and powerful as a thousand 
horses ; because it has no passions and no 
motives ; because it is guided by its directors; 
because it runs and never tires ; because it 

15* 



174 WONDERS OF ART. 

may be applied to so many uses, and expanded 
to any strength. We believe that it is to be 
the great moral agent in bringing the world 
into neighborhood ; and the human mind, in 
various parts of the globe, into contact, and, 
ultimately, into concurrent action. By ap- 
proximating different nations, we believe that 
it is to increase intelligence ; and, by conse- 
quence, advance the benevolent enterprises of 
the day. By augmenting the destructive pow- 
er of men, we believe that it is designed to 
dull the edge of war, and plant perennial bow- 
ers of the olive-branch upon fields which have 
been fattened by the blood of millions. 

The sensation, now scarcely worn off, in 
which we were first borne away by the rail- 
road car, is not easy to describe. We feel as 
if a new power had been called into existence, 
and that we were ushered into a new era of 
human progress. The beauty of the long 
trains of coaches, in size and decoration like 
the parlor, rushing over plain and through 
valley, the trim round barrel of the engine, 
which seems too small to drag so ponderous a 
bulk, the long iron arms which project from its 
furnace, in shape like the legs of a grasshop- 
per, the bright polished wheels, the short black 
hissing pipe, the bounding speed of the car, 
when its propelling force is increased, strike 
us with amazement. Nor is the distant view 
of the railroad car less to be admired. At a 
distance, w^e behold it upon the landscape. 



WONDERS OF ART. 175 

dragging its linked trains with a motion en- 
tirely distinct from any thing else, a motion 
neither rolling nor creeping, but gliding along 
its iron track like some new land monster dif- 
ferent from any other species, as strange as 
the sea-serpent of Nahant, or a Kraken upon 
the coast of Norway ! 

The advantages of railroads to the nation 
in an economical point of view, will be no less 
remarkable. Our extended territory, watered 
as it is so profusely by navigable streams and 
lakes, possesses distinct local advantages which 
may render important aid to the prosperity of 
the other parts. Oar Atlantic seaboard, crowd- 
ed with a dense population, and studded as it 
is with our most important cities, although 
containing a comparatively barren soil, has, it 
is well known, long derived its prosperity from 
commerce, and in that portion comprised by 
New England, the foundation of a system of 
manufactures has been commenced, and car- 
ried out against formidable obstacles with 
considerable success. 

If we turn to the south, we find its low and 
level soil producing harvests of cotton, rice, 
tobacco, and sugar, peculiar to itself, and which 
have heretofore been a source of great profit 
to its cultivators. Passing to the west, we 
find whole mountains of coal, and iron, and 
lead, and copper, as well as all other minerals 
required for use in developing the resources 
of a nation, besides a boundless agricultural 



176 WONDERS OF ART. 

territory, which will yield in unexampled 
abundance all the productions which are need- 
ed for the support of animal life, as well as 
the most important staples for exportation. It 
is the design and necessary consequence of our 
American railroads to construct safe, rapid, 
and cheap paths to these several sections of 
the country for the travelling community, and to 
provide vehicles for the transportation of their 
agricultural, mineral, and commercial products 
to the best markets, whether these markets 
are found at home or abroad. 

The lines of the railroads of the United 
States are destined to run along the Atlantic 
scabdard, and will connect all its principal 
cities, Portsmouth, Boston, New York, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Fredericksburgh, 
and Charleston, by their luxurious vehicles of 
transportation, thus furnishing a channel for 
trade and travel upon the land throughout 
the whole distance from north to south. At 
Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, and New 
Orleans, we find other lines running into the 
interior of the west, even to the borders of the 
Missouri, which will furnish safe outlets for 
their products. In the interior of the western 
territory, at Indianapolis and Cincinnati, at 
Milwaukie, Chicago, and Detroit, we find oth- 
er lines extending to the borders of the lakes, 
interlocking with numerous canals and navi- 
gable streams, and from the banks of these 
lakes and streams, direct lines running east- 



WONDERS OF ART. 177 

ward to the principal cities, connecting the 
western marts of trade with the prominent 
eastern marlvets ; thus furnishing to the whole 
country commercial arteries, which are as im- 
portant to the mercantile prosperity of the na- 
tion as the arterial system to the health of the 
human body. 

It is not a vain imagining to look forward 
for the distance of half a century into the com- 
mercial position of our nation, aided by our 
national enterprise, and by the influence of 
canals, railroads, and other public works. And 
what a picture is here spread before us, if the 
future is to be judged by the past, and conse- 
quences by the magnitude of their causes ! 
The new agents, which have heea but recent- 
ly called to the assistance of man, must vastly 
accelerate his progress ; and with modern na- 
tionSj years are but as days. What improve- 
ments have been in fact made within the last 
twenty years, in all the branches of the me- 
chanic arts and manufactures, in locomotion, 
which have aided in subjecting nature to the 
dominion of man ! We have full conviction 
that at that period the rivers and lakes of our 
country will be crowded with steamships, and 
manufacturing establishments will smile upon 
our waterfalls, well regulated by law, and 
turning out fabrics which will bear a safe 
competition with those of foreign importation. 
We believe that our railroads and their kin- 
dred works will so course the country, that to 



178 WONDERS OF ART. 

travel to its remotest points will be as easy as 
to move the little painted blocks on the sur- 
face of a checker-board. 

The manufacturing districts of the east will 
pour their products, whether they be the fruits 
of machinery or of navigation, into the west 
by their long lines of railroads, and the golden 
harvests of rice, and sugar, and cotton, and 
tobacco, which now adorn the sunny plains of 
the south, will be carried along the same 
tracks, to feed the manufacturing system of 
the east, or the growing population of the 
^vest. We believe that the west, in return^ 
will pour down upon the south and upon the 
east the agricultural products which will then 
be spread over the wide surfaces of the prai- 
ries of Illinois, the oaklands of Michigan, the 
rich land of Ohio, and the forests of Indiana, 
as well as the mountains of lead and copper, 
coal and iron, which now lie imbedded in the 
soil of Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and the 
hills of western Pennsylvania. We believe 
that these several products, transported to 
their places of shipment, will be exported 
abroad in steamships at the east and west — 
at New Orleans as well as New York, upon 
the Ohio as well as upon the Hudson — and 
that the republic will become a producing and 
exporting nation, made thus by the agency of 
steam. 

In order to judge of the achievements of this 
mighty agent, it may be stated that the rail- 



WONDERS OP AItT» 179 

road car could be pressed to the speed of sixty 
miles ill an hour ; and at that rate it would 
require but seventeen days for its engines to 
travel around the globe, did a continuous sur- 
face of land encircle it. And without any un- 
due pressure of speed, persons may go from 
Boston to New York in eight hours ; to Wash- 
ington in twenty-four hours ; and to St. Louis 
and back again in less than a week. 

The construction of railroads has already 
done much, in this country, in new modelling 
our social and business relations. Distant 
points, to all practical purposes, have been 
brought into juxtaposition. Distance has been 
comparatively annihilated. Those who were 
unknown to each other have become neigh- 
bors. This has been done in a few years* 
More— much more is to be anticipated. Had 
any one predicted twenty years since, that in 
the United States we should now have 4500 
miles of good railroads, he would have been 
thought insane. Yet such is the fact ; and 
this has been effected by an expenditure of 
$112,000,000. 



THE SHOEMADOO AT PEGU. 

The object in Pegu that most attracts and 
most merits notice, says Mr. Symes in his Em- 
bassy to Ava, is the noble edifice of Shoema- 
doo, or the Golden Supreme. This extraordi* 



180 . WONDERS OF ART. 

nary pile of birildings is erected on a double 
terrace, one raided upon another. The lower 
and greater terrace is about ten feet above 
the natural level of the ground, forming an 
exact parallelogram: the upper and lesser 
terrace is similar in shape, and rises about 
twenty feet above the lower terrace, or thirty 
above the level of the country. I judged a 
side of the lower terrace to be 1391 feet ; of 
the upper, 684. 

The walls that sustained the sides of the 
terrace, both upper and lower, are in a ruinous 
state ; they were formerly covered wdth plas- 
ter, wrought into various figures ; the area of 
the lower is strewed w4lh the fragments of 
small decayed buildings, but the upper is kept 
free from filth, and is in tolerably good order. 
There is reason to conclude that this building 
and the fortress are coeval, as the earth of 
which the terraces are composed appears to 
have been taken from the ditch ; there being 
no other excavation in the city, or in its neigh- 
borhood, that could have afforded a tenth part 
of the quantity. 

The terraces are ascended by flights of stone 
steps, which are now broken and neglected. 
On each side are dwellings of the Rhahaans, 
raised on timbers four or five feet from the 
ground ; these houses consist only of a large 
hall : the wooden pillars that support them 
are turned with neatness ; the roofs are cov- 
ered with tiles, and the sides are made of 



WONDERS OF ART. 181 

boards ; and there are a number of bare bench- 
es in every house, on which the Rhahaans 
sleep ; but we saw no other furniture. 

Shoemadoo is a pyramidical building com- 
posed of brick and mortar, without excavation 
or aperture of any sort ; octagonal at the base, 
and spiral at the top ; each side of the base 
measures 162 feet; this immense breadth di- 
minishes abruptly, and a similar building has 
not unaptly been compared in shape to a large 
speaking-trumpet. 

Six feet from the ground there is a wide 
projection that surrounds the base, on the plane 
of which are fifty-seven small spires of equal 
size, and equidistant ; one of them measured 
twenty-seven feet in height, and forty in cir- 
cumference at the bottom. On a higher ledge 
there is another row consisting of fifty-three 
spires of similar shape and measurement. 

A great variety of mouldings encircle the 
building ; and ornaments somewhat resem- 
bling the fleur-de-lis surround the lower part 
of the spire ; circular mouldings likewise girt 
it to a considerable height, above which there 
are ornaments in stucco not unlike the leaves 
of a Corinthian capital ; and the whole is 
crowned by a Tee, or umbrella, of open iron- 
work, from which rises a rod with a gilded 
pennant. 

The tee or umbrella is to be seen on every 
sacred building that is of a spiral form ; the 
raising and consecration of this last and indis- 

16 



182 WONDERS OF ART, 

pensable appendage, is an act of high religious 
solemnity, and a season of festivity and relax-^ 
ation. The present king bestowed the tee that 
covers Shoemadoo. It vras made at the cap- 
ital ; and many of the principal nobility came 
dow^n from Ummerapoora to be present at the 
ceremony of its elevation. 

The circumference of the tee is fifty-six 
feet ; it rests on an iron axis fixed in the build- 
ing, and is farther secured by large chains 
strongly riveted to the spire. Round the low- 
er rim of the tee are appended a number of 
bells, which agitated by the wind make a con- 
tinual jingling. 

The tee is gilt, and it is said to be the inten- 
tion of the king to gild the whole of the spire. 
All the lesser pagodas are ornamented with 
proportionable umbrellas of similar workman- 
ship, which are likew*ise encircled by small 
bells. The extreme height of the edifice, from 
the level of the country, is 3G1 feet, and above 
the interior terrace, 331 feet. 

On the southeast angle of the upper terrace 
there are two handsome saloons, or kioums^ 
lately erected, the roofs composed of different 
stages, supported by pillars ; we judged the 
length of each to be about sixty feet, and the 
breadth thirty : the ceiling of one is already 
embellished with gold leaf, and the pillars are 
lackered ; the decoration of the other is not yet 
completed. They are made entirely of wood ; 
the carving on the outside is laborious and 



WONDERS OF ART. 183 

minute : we saw several unfinished figures of 
animals and men in grotesque attitudes, which 
were designed as ornaments for different parts 
of the building. Some images of Guadama, the 
supreme object of Birman adoration, lay scat- 
tered around. 

At each angle of the interior and higher ter- 
race there is a temple 67 feet high, resembling 
in miniature the great temple : in front of that, 
in the southwest corner, are four gigantic re- 
presentations in masonry of Palloo, or the evil 
genius, half beast, half human, seated on their 
hams, each with a large club on the right 
shoulder. The Pundit who accompanied me, 
said that they resembled the Rakuss of the 
Hindoos. These are guardians of the temple. 

Nearly in the centre of the east face of the 
area are two human figures in stucco, beneath 
a gilded umbrella ; one, standing, represents 
a man with a book before him and a pen in 
his hand ; he is called Thasiamee, the recorder 
of mortal merits and mortal misdeeds ; the 
other, a female figure kneeling, is Mahasum- 
dera, the protectress of the universe, so long 
as the universe is doomed to last ; but when 
the time of general dissolution arrives, by her 
hand the world is to be overwhelmed and ev- 
erlastingly destroyed. 

A small brick building near the northeast 
angle contains an upright marble slab, four 
feet high and three feet wide : there is a long 
legible inscription on it. I was told it was an 



184 WONDERS OF ART. 

account of the donations of pilgrims of only a 
recent date* 

Along the whole extent of the north face of 
the upper terrace, there is a wooden shed for 
the convenience of devotees who come from a 
distant part of the country. On the north side 
of the temple are three large bells of good 
workmanship, suspended nigh the ground, be- 
tween pillars ; several deers' horns lie strewed 
around ; those who come to pay their devo- 
tions first take up one of the horns and strike 
the bell three times, giving an alternate stroke 
to the ground : this act, 1 was told, is to an- 
nounce to the spirit of Guadama the approach 
of a suppliant. 

There are several low benches near the foot 
of the temple, on which the person who comes 
to pray places his offering, commonly consist- 
ing of boiled rice, a plate of sweetmeats, or 
cocoa-nut fried in oil ; when it is given, the 
devotee cares not what becomes of it ; the 
crows and wild dogs often devour it in pres- 
ence of the donor, who never attempts to dis- 
turb the animals. I saw several plates of 
victuals disposed of in this manner, and un- 
derstood it to be the case with all that was 
brought. 

There are many small temples on the areas 
of both terraces, which are neglected and suf- 
fered to fall into decay. Numberless images 
of Guadama lie indiscriminately scattered. A 
pious Birman who purchases an idol, first pro- 



WONDERS OF ART. 185 

cures the ceremony of consecration to be per- 
formed by the Rhahaans ; he then takes his 
purchase to whatever sacred building is most 
convenient, and there places it in the shelter 
of a kioum, or on the open ground before the 
temple ; nor does he ever again seem to have 
any anxiety about its preservation, but leaves 
the divinity to shift for itself. Some of these 
idols are made of marble that is found in the 
neighborhood of the capital of the Birman do- 
minions, and admits of a very fine polish; 
many are formed of wood, and gilded, and a 
few are of silver ; the latter, however, are not 
usually exposed and neglected like the others. 
Silver and gold are rarely used, except in the 
composition of household gods. 

On both the terraces are a number of white 
<;ylindrical flags, raised on bamboo poles ; these 
flags are peculiar to the Rhahaans, and are 
considered as emblematical of purity, and of 
their sacred function. On the top of the staff 
there is a henza, or goose, the symbol both of 
the Birman and Pegu nations. 



AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. 

The numerous remains of ancient fortifica- 
tions and mounds found in the western states, 
are the admiration of the curious and a matter 
of much speculation. They are mostly of an 

16* 



186 WONDERS OF ART. 

oblong form, situated on well-chosen ground 
and near the water. 

One of the fortifications, or towns, at Mari- 
etta, Ohio, contains forty acres, accompanied 
by a wail of earth from six to ten feet high. 
On each side are three openings, at equal dis- 
tances, resembling gateways. The works are 
undoubtedly very ancient, as there does not ap- 
pear to be any difference in the age or size of 
the timber growing on or within the walls, and 
that which grows without ; and the Indians 
have lost all tradition respecting them. Dr. 
Cutler, who accurately examined the trees on 
the works at Marietta, thinks from appear- 
ances that they are on the second growth, and 
that the works must have been built upwards 
of one thousand years. 

At a convenient distance from these works 
always stands a mound of earth thrown up in 
the form of a pyramid. Upon examination, 
some of these mounds are found to contain an 
immense number of human skeletons. 

The ancient works on the western branches 
of the Muskingum river extend nearly two 
miles, the ramparts of which are now in some 
places more than eighteen feet in perpendicu- 
lar height. 

In Pompey, Onondaga county. New York, 
are vestiges of a town, the area of which in- 
cluded more than five hundred acres. It was 
protected by three circular or elliptical forts, 
eight miles distant from each other. They 



WONDERS OF ART. 187 

formed a triangle which enclosed the town. 
From certain indications, this town seems to 
have been stormed and taken on the line of 
the north side. 

In Camillus, in the same county, are the re- 
mains of two forts, one covering about three 
acres on a very high hill. It had one eastern 
gate, and a communication at the west towards 
a spring about ten rods from the fort. Its 
shape was elliptical. The ditch was deep, 
and the eastern wall ten feet high. The other 
fort is almost half a mile distant on lower 
ground, constructed like the other and about 
half as large. Shells of testaceous animals, 
numerous fragments of pottery, pieces of brick, 
and other signs of an ancient settlement were 
found by the first European settlers. 

On the east bank of Seneca river, six miles 
south of Cross and Salt lakes, the remains of 
an ancient Indian defence have been discover- 
ed, together with a delineation of ill-shapen 
figures, supposed to have been hieroglyphical, 
and engraven as with a chisel, on a flat stone, 
five feet in length, three and a half in breadth, 
and six inches thick ; evidently a sepulchral 
monument. The principal fortification was two 
hundred and twenty yards in length, and fifty- 
five in breadth. The bank and corresponding 
ditch were remarkably entire ; as were two 
apertures, opposite each other in the middle of 
t^e parallelogram, one opening to the water 
and the other facing the forest. 



188 WONDERS OF ART. 

About half a mile south of the great work 
was a large half-moon, supposed to have been 
an outwork, but attended with this singularity, 
that the extremities of the crescent were from 
the larger fort. The banks of the ditch, both 
of this and the first fortress, were covered with 
trees that exhibited extremity of age. 

The flat stone above mentioned was found 
over a small elevation in the great fort. 
Upon removing it, one of the visiting party 
dug up with his cane a piece of an earthen 
vessel, which, from the convexity of the frag- 
ment, was supposed to contain two gallons. 
It was well burned, of a red color, and had 
its upper end indented, as with the finger in its 
impressionable state. 

Eastward, these fortifications have been 
traced eighteen miles from Manlius Square ; 
and in Oxford, Chenango county, on the east 
bank of the Chenango river, are the remains 
of another fort, remarkable for its great an- 
tiquity. Northward, as far as Sandy creek, 
about fourteen miles from Sackett's Harbor, is 
one which covers near fifty acres and contains 
numerous fragments of pottery. 

Westward, they are discovered in great 
numbers. There is a large one in the town 
of Onondaga, one in Scipio, two near Auburn, 
three near Canandaigua, and several between 
the Seneca and Cayuga lakes. A number of an- 
cient fortifications and burial-places have al^o 
been discovered in Ridgeway, Genesee county. 



WONDERS OF ART. 189 

Near the Tonawanda creek, at the double 
fortified town, are some interesting antiquities 
described by Dr. Kirkland. They are the re- 
mains of two forts. The first contained about 
four acres, and the other, distant about two 
miles, and situated on the other extremity of 
the ancient town, enclosed tw'ice that quantity 
of ground. 

The ditch around the former was about five 
or six feet deep. A small stream of water 
and a high bank circumscribed nearly one- 
third of the enclosed ground. There were 
traces of six gates or avenues round the ditch, 
and near the centre a way was dug to the 
water. A considerable number of large thrifty 
oaks had grown up within the enclosed ground, 
both in and upon the ditch ; some of them ap- 
peared to be at least two hundred years old or 
more. 

Near the northern fortification, which was 
situated on high ground, were found the re- 
mains of a funeral pile, probably the burying- 
place of the slain, who had fallen in some san- 
guinary conflict. The earth was raised about 
six feet above the common surface, and be- 
twixt twenty and thirty feet in diameter. The 
bones appeared on the whole surface of the 
raised earth, and stuck out in many places on 
the sides. 

On the south side of Lake Erie is a series 
of old fortifications, from Cattaraugus creek to 
the Pennsylvania line, a distance of fifty miles. 



190 WONDERS OF ART. 

Some are from two to four miles apart, others 
half a mile only. Some contain five acres. 
The walls, or breastworks, are of earth, and 
generally on ground where there are appear- 
ances of creeks having once flowed into the 
lake, or where there was a bay. 

These vestiges of ancient fortified towns, 
are widely scattered throughout the extensive 
territory of the Six Nations, and, by Indian re- 
port, in various other parts. There is one on 
a branch of the Delaware river, which, from 
the size and age of some of the trees, that 
have grown on the banks and in the ditches, 
appears to have existed nearly one thousand 
years, and perhaps for a still longer period. 
These antiquities afford demonstrative evi- 
dence of the remote existence of a vast popula- 
tion, settled in towns, defended by forts, culti- 
vating agriculture, and more advanced in civ- 
ilization than the nations which have inhabited 
the same countries since the European dis- 
covery. 

The most probable conjecture respecting 
these people is, that they were of Tartar origin, 
and came across to this continent near Beh- 
ring's Straits, and going southward followed 
the course of the great rivers ; finding the soil 
fruitful on the Ohio and Mississippi, they re- 
sided there for a while, till at length, following 
each other, they established themselves in the 
warm and fertile vales of Mexico. 



Wonders o]^ art, 191 



INVENTION OF STEAMBOATS, 

The first successful application of steam for 
the purpose of propelling boats, v/as accom^ 
plished by Robert Fulton, a native of the state 
of Pennsylvania. Mr. Fulton's inventive ge- 
nius displayed itself at an early age. It seems 
that as early as the year 1793 he had conceiv- 
ed the idea of propelling vessels by steam, and 
he speaks in some of his w^ritings with great 
confidence of its practicability. After a number 
of years' residence in Europe, and making a 
variety of experiments both in that country 
and in this, his labors were finally crowned 
with success. 

In the spring of 1807, the first steamboat 
built in this country was launched from a 
ship-yard in New York, on the East River* 
The engine, which he procured from England, 
was put on board in August, and the boat was 
completed and moved by her machinery to the 
Jersey shore. This boat, which was called 
the Clermont, soon after sailed for Albany^ 
which voyage she accomplished, going at the 
rate of about five miles an hour ; she after- 
wards became a regular passage boat between 
New York and Albany. 

The account of her first voyage to Albany 
is thus described: ''She excited the astonish- 
ment of the inhabitants on the shores of the 
Hudson, many of whom had not heard of an 
engine, much less a steamboat. She was de- 



192 WONDERS OP ART. 

scribed by some who had indistinctly seen ner 
passing in the night, as a monster moving on 
the waters, defying the tide, and breathing 
flames and smoke. Her volumes of smoke 
and fire by night, attracted the attention of 
the crews of other vessels. 

" Notwithstanding the wind and tide were 
adverse to its progress, they saw with aston- 
ishment that it was rapidly approaching them ; 
and when it came so near that the noise of the 
machinery and paddles was heard, the crews^ 
in some instances, sunk beneath their decks 
from the terrific sight and left their vessels to 
go on shore ; while others prostrated them- 
selves, and besought Providence to protect 
them from the approaches of this horrible 
monster, which was marching on the tides, 
and lighting its path by the fires which it 
vomited." From the time that this boat was 
put in motion, this noble invention has been 
rapidly extended, till it is now used in every 
part of the civilized world. 

The following is from a discourse delivered 
by Judge Story before the Boston Mechanics' 
Lyceum : " I myself have heard the illustrious 
inventor relate, in an animated and aflfection- 
ate manner, the history of his labors and dis- 
couragements. * When,' said he, * I was build- 
ing my first steamboat at New York, the pro- 
ject was viewed by the public, either with in- 
difference, or with contempt, as a visionary 
scheme. My friends, indeed, were civil, but 



WOXDfiRS OP ART* 103 

they were shy. They listened with patience 
to my explanations, but with a settled cast of 
incredulity on their countenances. I felt the 
force of the lamentation of the poet — 

* Truths would you teach to save a sinking land, 
All shun, none aid you, and few understand/ 

" ' As I had occasion to pass daily to and 
from the building yard, while my boat was in 
progress, I have loitered often unknown near 
the idle groups of strangers, gathering in little 
circles, and heard various inquiries as to the 
object of this new vehicle. The language 
was uniformly that of scorn, or sneer, or ridi- 
cule. The loud laugh often rose at my ex- 
pense ; the dry jest, the wise calculation of 
losses and expenditures, the dull but endless 
repetition of the Fulton Folly. Never did a 
single encouraging remark, a bright hope, or 
a warm wish, cross my path* Silence itself 
was but politeness, veiling its doubts or hiding 
its reproaches. 

" ' At length the day arrived when the ex- 
periment was to be put into operation. To 
me it was a most interesting and trying occa- 
sion. I invited my friends to go on board and 
witness the first successful trip. Many of them 
did me the favor to attend as a matter of per- 
sonal respect ; but it was manifest that they 
did it with reluctance, fearing to be the part- 
ners of my mortification and not of my tri- 
umph. I was well aware that in my case 

17 



194 WONDERS OP ARTi 

there were many reasons to doubt of my own 
success. The machinery was new and ill- 
made ; many parts of it were constructed by 
mechanics unaccustomed to such work ; and 
unexpected difficulties might reasonably be 
supposed to present themselves from other 
causes. 

" * The moment arrived in which the word 
was to be given for the vessel to move ; my 
friends were in groups upon deck ; they were 
silent, and sad, and weary. I read in their 
looks nothing but disaster, and almost repented 
my efforts. The signal was given and the 
boat moved a short distance, and then stopped 
and became immoveable. To the silence of 
the preceding moment now succeeded mur- 
murs of discontent, and agitations, and wishes, 
and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated, 
"I told you it would be so — it is a foolish 
scheme — I wish we were well out of it." I 
elevated myself upon a platform, and address* 
ing the assembly, stated that I knew not what 
was the matter, but if they would be quiet 
and indulge me for half an hour, I would either 
go on or abandon the voyage for that time. 

" * This short respite was conceded to with- 
out objection. I went below, examined the 
machinery, and discovered that the cause was 
a slight mal-adjustment of some of the works. 
The boat was put in motion. She continued 
to move on. All were still incredulous. None 
seemed willing to trust the evidences of their 



W0NDER3 OF ART. 195 

own senses. We left the fair city of New 
York ; we passed through the romantic and 
ever- varying scenery of the Highlands; we 
descried the clustering houses of Albany ; we 
reached its shores; and then, even then, 
when all seemed achieved, I was the victim 
of disappointment. Imagination superseded 
the influence of fact. It was then doubted 
if it could be done again ; or if done, it was 
doubted if it could be made of any great 
value.' 

" Such was the history of the first experi- 
ment, as it fell, not in the very language which 
I have used, but in substance, from the lips of 
the inventor. He did not live, indeed, to enjoy 
the full glory of his invention. It is mournful 
to say that attempts were made to rob him in 
the first place of the merits of his invention, 
and next of its fruits. He fell a victim to his 
efforts to sustain his title to both. When 
already his invention had covered the waters 
of the Hudson, he seemed little satisfied with 
the results, and looked forward to far more 
extensive operations. 

" * My ultimate triumph,' he used to say, 
* my ultimate triumph will be on the Missis- 
sippi. I know, indeed, that even now it is 
deemed impossible, by many, that the difficul- 
ties of its navigation can be overcome. But I 
am confident of success ; I may not live to see 
it, but the Mississippi will yet be covered with 
steamboats, and thus an entire change be 



196 WONDERS OF ART. 

wrought ill the course of the internal com- 
merce and navigation of our country.' 

" And it has been wrought — and the steam- 
boat, looking to its effects upon commerce and 
navigation ; to the combined influences of fa- 
cilities of travelling and the facility of trade; 
of rapid circulation of news, and still more ra- 
pid circulation of pleasure and products; seems 
destined to be numbered among the noblest 
benefactions of the human race." 



A FIRST-RATE MAN OF WAR. 

A MAN in health consumes, in the space of 
24 hours, about eight pounds of victuals and 
drink, consequently 8,000 pounds of provisions 
are required daily in such a ship. Now let 
us suppose her to be fitted out for three months 
only, and we shall find that she must be laden 
with 720,000 pounds of provisions. A large 
forty-two pounder weighs about 6,100 pounds 
if made of brass, and about 5.500 pounds if of 
iron ; and generally there are 28 or 30 of 
these on board a ship of 100 guns, the weight 
of which, exclusive of that of their carriages, 
amounts to 183,000 pounds. 

On the second deck are 30 twenty-four pound- 
ers, each weighing about 5,100 pounds, and 
therefore altogether, 153,000 pounds; and the 
weight of the 26 or 28 twelve-pounders on the 
lower deck, amounts to about 76,400 pounds, 



WONDERS OF ART. 197 

and that of the 14 six-pounders on the upper 
deck to about 26,600 pounds; and besides that, 
on the round-tops, there are even three-pound- 
ers and swivels. Now, if to this we add, 
that the complete charge of a forty-two pound- 
er weighs about 64 pounds, and that at least 
upwards of 100 charges are required for each 
gun, we shall find this to amount nearly to the 
same weight as the guns themselves. 

In addition to this, we must reflect, that 
every ship must have, by way of providing 
against exigencies, at least another set of sails, 
cables, cordage, and tacklings, which alto- 
gether amount to a considerable weight. The 
stores, likewise, consisting of planks, pitch, 
and tow ; the chests belonging to the officers 
and sailors ; the surgeon's stores, and various 
other articles requisite on a long voyage ; as 
also the small- arms, bayonets, swords, and pis- 
tols, are no inconsiderable load ; to w^hich we 
must finally add, the weight of the crew% 
which is not very trifling ; so that one of these 
large ships carries at least 2,162 tons burden, 
or 4,324,000 pounds, and at the same time is 
steered and governed with as much ease as 
the smallest boat. 

A first-rate man-of-war has its gun-deck 
from 159 to 174 feet in length, and from 44 to 
50 feet broad; contains from 1,313 to 1,882 
tons ; has from 706 to 800 men ; and carries 
from 96 to 110 guns. This ship requires about 
60,000 cubic feet of timber, and uses 180,000 

17* 



198 WONDERS OF ART. 

pounds of rough hemp in the cordage and sails 
for it. The ground on which the timber for a 
74 gun-ship would require to grow, would be 
14 acres. It requires 3,000 loads of timber, 
each load containing 51 cubic feet ; 1,500 w^ell- 
grown trees of two loads each, will cover 14 
acres at 20 feet asunder ; 3,000 loads of rough 
oak, at 2^. per foot, or £5 per load, will cost 
£15,000. 



CURIOUS CLOCK AT STRASBURGH. 

At Strasburgh there is a clock of all others 
the most famous, invented by Conradius Dasi- 
podius, in the year 1571. Before the clock 
stands a globe on the ground, showing the 
motions of the heavens, stars, and planets. 
The heavens are carried about by the first 
mover in twenty-four hours. Saturn, by his 
proper motion, is carried about in thirty years ; 
Jupiter in twelve ; Mars in two ; the Sun, 
Mercury, and Venus, in one year; and the 
Moon in one month. In the clock itself there 
are two tables on the right and left hand, 
showing the eclipses of the sun and moon from 
the year 1573 to the year 1624. 

The third table in the middle, is divided into 
three parts. In the first part the statues of 
Apollo and Diana show the course of the year 
and the day thereof, being carried about in 
one year ; the second part shows the year of 



WONDERS OF ART. 199 

our Lord and the equinoctial days, the hours 
of each day, the minutes of each hour, Easter 
day and all other feasts, and the dominical let- 
ter. The third part hath the geographical de- 
scription of all Germany, and particularly of 
Strasburgh, and the names of the inventor and 
all the workmen. 

In the middle frame of the clock is an as- 
trolabe, showing the sign in which each planet 
is every day ; and there are the statues of the 
seven planets upon a round piece of iron, lying 
flat ; so that every day the planet that rules 
the day comes forth, the rest being hid within 
the frames, till they come out by course at 
their day ; as the sun upon Sunday, and so for 
all the week. And there is also a terrestrial 
globe, which shows the quarter, the half-hour, 
and the minutes. There is also the skull of a 
dead man ; and statues of two boys, whereof 
one turns the hour-glass when the clock hath 
struck, the other puts forth the rod in his hand 
at each stroke of the clock. Moreover, there 
are the statues of Spring, Summer, Autumn, 
and Winter, and many observations of the 
moon. 

In the upper part of the clock are four old 
men's statues, which strike the quarters of the 
hour ; the statue of Death comes out at each 
quarter* to strike, but is driven back by the 
statue of Christ, with a spear in his hand, for 
three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, that 
of Christ goes back, and that of Death strikes 



200 WONDERS OF ART. 

the hour with a bone in his hand, and then the 
chimes sound. On the top of the clock is an 
image of a cock, which twice in the day crows 
aloud and claps his wings. Besides, this clock 
is decked with many rare pictures ; and, being 
on the inside of the church, carries another 
frame to the outside of the walls, wherein the 
hours of the sun, the courses of the moon, the 
length of the day, and such other things are 
set out with great art. 



CLOCKS IN THE FORM OF CHARIOTS. 

Surprising as the mechanical wonders just 
described may seem to be, they appear to be 
excelled by two clocks made a few years since, 
by an English artist, and sent as a present 
from the East India Company to the Emperor 
of China. 

These clocks are in the form of chariots, in 
which are placed, in a fine attitude, a lady 
leaning her right hand upon a part of the 
chariot ; under which is a clock of curious 
workmanship, little larger than a shilling, that 
strikes, and repeats, and goes eight days. 
Upon her finger sits a bird finely modelled, 
and set with diamonds and rubies, with its 
wings expanded in a flying posture, and actu- 
ally flutters for a considerable time on touch- 
ing a diamond button below it ; the body of 
the bird (which contains part of the wheels 



WONDERS OF ART. 201 

that in a manner give life to it) is not the big- 
ness of the sixteenth part of an inch. 

The lad}^ holds in her left hand a gold tube, 
not much thicker than a large pin, on the top 
of which is a small round box, to which a cir- 
cular ornament set with diamonds not larger 
than a sixpence is fixed, which goes round 
near three hours, in a constant regular motion. 
Over the lady's head, supported by a small 
fluted pillar no bigger than a quill, are two 
umbrellas ; under the largest of which a bell 
is fixed, at a considerable distance from the 
clock, and seeming to have no connection with 
it ; but from which a communication is secretly 
conveyed to a hammer that regularly strikes 
the hour, and repeats the same at pleasure by 
touching a diamond button fixed to the clock 
below. 

At the feet of the lady is a gold dog, before 
which, from the point of the chariot, are two 
birds fixed on spiral springs, the wings and 
feathers of which are set with stones of vari- 
ous colors, and appear as if flying away with 
the chariot, which, from another secret motion, 
is contrived to run in a straight, circular, or 
any other direction. A boy that lays hold of 
the chariot behind, seems also to push it for- 
ward. Above the umbrella are flowers and 
ornaments of precious stones, and it terminates 
with a flying dragon set in the same manner. 
The whole is of gold, most curiously executed, 
and embellished with rubies and pearls. 



202 WONDERS OF ART, 

MECHANICAL THEATRE. 

This curious piece of mechanism exhibited 
at Paris is thus described by the Rev. Mr. 
Evans : — The spectacle in the Picturesque and 
Mechanical Theatre consisted of scenery and 
appropriate little moving figures. The first 
scene was a viewof a wood in early morning ; 
every object looked blue, fresh, and dewy. 
The gradations of light, until the approach of 
meridian day, were admirably represented. 
Serpents were seen crawling in the grass. A 
little sportsman entered with his fowling-piece, 
and imitated all the movements natural to his 
pursuits ; a tiny wild-duck rose from a lake 
and flew before him. He pointed his gun and 
changed his situation — pointed again and 
fired ; the bird dropped, he threw it over his 
shoulders, fastened his gun, and retired. 

Wagons, drawn by horses four inches high, 
passed along ; groups of peasantry followed, 
exquisitely imitating all the indications of life. 
Amongst several other scenes was a beautiful 
view of the Bay of Naples, and the great 
bridge, over which little horses with their ri- 
ders passed in the various paces of walking, 
trotting, and galloping. All the minutiae of 
nature were attended to. The ear was be- 
guiled with the patting of the horses' hoofs 
upon the pavement ; and some of the little an- 
imals reared, and ran before the others. There 
were, also, some charming little sea-pieces, in 



Wonders op art. 203 

which the vessels sailed with their heads to- 
wards the spectators, and manoeuvred in a 
surprising manner. 

The whole concluded with a storm, and 
shipwrecked sailors were seen floating in the 
water, then buried in the surge* One of them 
rose again and reached a rock. Boats put off 
to his relief and perished in the attempt. The 
little figure was seen displaying the greatest 
agonies. The storm subsided: tiny persons 
appeared upon the top of a projecting cliff, 
near a watch-tow^er, and low^ered a rope to the 
little sufferer below, which he caught, and af- 
ter ascending to some height by it, overwhelm- 
ed by fatigue, lost his hold. After recovering 
from the fall, he renewed his efforts, and at 
length reached the top in safety, amidst the 
acclamations of the spectators. 



BUNKER HILL MONUMENT. 

To future generations, the Bunker Hill Mon- 
ument will be among the most interesting 
works of the kind in this country. Indeed, it 
is so now. Nor is it interesting simply be- 
cause of its architectural perfection ; but it 
will remind the yeomanry on the hills in the 
surrounding country of the events which it 
commemorates. It will point to the history 
of the American Revolution with the steadi- 
ness and certainty of the magnetic needle. 



204 WONDERS O^ ART. 

Hence thousands yet unborn will be induced 
to read the story of those perilous days. It is 
proper, therefore, in connection with an ab- 
stract of the statistics of the monument, to 
give an abstra,ct of the events it is designed 
to preserve in all the freshness of truth. 

Bunker Hill, in Charlestown, Mass., has ob- 
tained great celebrity, as being the theatre of 
the first regukir battle between the Provincial 
and the British troops in the war of the Revo- 
lution. The place where the battle was fought 
was originally called Breed's Hill, Bunker Hill 
being of about an equal height, and north of 
it, at the entrance of the peninsula on which 
Charlestown is situated. On this height a de- 
tachment of IGOO men were directed to in- 
trench themselves, on the night of the 16th of 
June, 1775. 

By some mistake, they proceeded to Breed's 
Hill, which is nearer to Boston, and which has 
since been denominated Bunker Hill, as the 
name is intimately associated with the battle. 
The men had worked hard, with such secrecy, 
that, by the dawn of day, they had, unperceived 
by the enemy, thrown up a redoubt of eight 
rods square. The incessant fire from the ship- 
ping and a battery on Copp's Hill, in Boston, 
did not prevent the Americans from complet- 
ing by mid-day, with great labor and fatigue, 
a slight breastwork from the i*edoubt to the 
bottom of the hill on the east side. Between 
12 and 1 o'clock, the British, to the amount of 



WONDERS OF ART. 205 

3000 men, with a portion of artillery, under 
Major-general Howe and Brigadier-general 
Pigot, landed in Charlestown, and having form- 
ed their men in two lines, advanced slowly to 
the attack, frequently halting to allow their ar- 
tillery time to fire. 

The Americans coolly waited in their in- 
trenchmonts their approach. It is said that 
General 'Putnam, who was a leader, though 
Colonel Prescott had the chief command, told 
the men that they had not a charge of powder 
to lose, and exhorted them not to fire upon the 
enemy until they could see the whites of their 
eyes. They were suffered to approach within 
10 or 12 rods, when these practised American 
marksmen discharged their pieces incessantly 
with such deadly aim, as threw the British into 
confusion and caused them to retreat precip- 
itately to the bottom of the hill. By the efforts 
of their officers they were formed the second 
time and advanced to the attack. The Ameri- 
cans waited until they were within five or six 
rods, when they opened a destructive fire, 
which brought them to a stand and threw 
them into confusion. 

At this critical moment General Clinton ar- 
rived from Boston, and succeeded in rallying 
his men and in bringing them to a charge, 
while some cannon were brought to a station 
that enabled them to rake the breastwork from 
end to end. The works were now attacked 
with fixed bayonets, and as the Americans 

18 



S06 WONDllRS OF ARl*. 

Were not furnished with them, and as their 
ammunition began to feil, they found it neces- 
sary to retreat over Charlestown neck, in do- 
ing which they were exposed to the fire of the 
Glasgow man-of-warand the floating batteries, 
without suffering great injury from them* 

The British were victorious, but it was a 
dear-bought victory. The British l<^ss, by the 
acknowledgment of General Gage, was 1,054 
killed and wounded, and the engagement was 
particularly fatal to the officers, as they were 
doubtless singled out by the American marks- 
men. Nineteen commissioned officers were 
killed, and seventy more wounded. Among 
the former v/as Major Pitcairn, v/ho led the 
attack at Lexington. Of the men, 226 were 
killed and 828 wounded. The Americans, 
who had at no time more than 1,500 men en- 
gaged, had 145 killed and 304 wounded and 
missing, making in the whole 449. Among 
the former was Major-general Warren, then 
president of the colonial congress, and a vol- 
unteer. The British did not pursue the victory 
farther than to intrench themselves on Bun- 
ker^s Hill, and the Americans did the same on 
Prospect Hill in front of them, about halfway 
to Cambridge. 

Early in the battle, an order was sent to 
Copp's Hill, in Boston, to set Charlestown on 
fire, which was effected by discharging a car- 
cass into the place, and the fire soon spread 
over it But the direction of the wind pre* 



WONDERS OF AST. 207 

vented the smoke from seriously annoying the 
Americans. 

On the site of the battle, 62 feet above the 
level of the harbor, on ground purchased for 
the purpose, the Bunker Hill Monument, a 
splendid obelisk, has been erected. The cor- 
ner-stone was first laid by the celebrated La 
Fayette, on the fifdeth anniversary of the bat- 
tle, June 17th, 1825, in the presence of an im- 
mense concourse of citizens, when an address 
was delivered by the Hon. Daniel Webster. 
This foundation having been insufficient, the 
<5orner-stone of the present structure was laid 
in a more substantial manner, in March, 1827. 

The monument was completed, July 23d, 
1842. The obelisk is 30 feet square at the 
base, and 16 feet 4| inches at the top, having 
a diminution of 14 feet 7| inches above the 
base. It is substantially built of hewnQuincy 
granite. The height from the base to the 
commencement of the apex is 208 feet ; and 
from the base to the top of the apex it is 221 
feet in height. The whole cost has been 
$119,800. The interior is circular, having a 
diameter of 10 feet 7 inches at the bottom*, and 
6 feet 4 inches at top, and is ascended by 294 
steps. The top is an elliptical chamber, 17 
feet high, 11 feet in diameter, with four win- 
dows 2 feet 8 inches high, 2 feet 2 inches in 
breadth, and presents the most splendid view 
in the United States, combining in a remark- 
able degree the beautiful and the sublime. 



208 WONDERS OF ART. 

Boston, its harbor and environs, with the more 
distant country, embracing mountain scenery, 
are spread out in a most enchanting prospect. 
The obelisk consists of 90 courses of hewn 
stone, 84 above the base, and 6 below it. 
There are a number of windows in the struc- 
ture, closed with iron shutters, besides numer- 
ous apertures. 

The ladies of Boston, by a fair and other 
donations, raised a large sum, which ensured 
the completion of the monument. At the fair, 
by tickets and the sale of articles, the sum of 
$32,000 was raised. The finishing of the 
monument, July 23d, 1842, was hailed by the 
firing of cannon and other testimonials of re- 
joicing. The anniversary of the battle and 
the completion of the monument were celebra- 
ted in a splendid manner, June 17th, 1843, in 
the presence of the President of the United 
States and the heads of departments, and an 
immense concourse of citizens, when an ad- 
dress was delivered on the occasion by the 
Hon. Daniel Webster, late Secretary of State 
of the United States. 

During the erection of the monument one 
man was killed by a fall from it ; the only se- 
rious disaster which occurred. This monu- 
ment, being the most elevated object in the 
vicinity, will serve as a landmark to seamen ; 
and will long stand in commemoration of the 
brave men who fought, and many of them 
fell, in defence of their country's rights, and 



WONDERS OF ART. 209 

nobly contributed to the independence of the 
United States. And it is to be hoped, that it 
will equally testify to posterity of the horrors 
of war ; for many were the widows and or- 
phans which were made on the 17th of June, 
1775. 



UNITED STATES CAPITOL. 

The capitol at the city of Washington is the 
finest in the United States, and not inferior to 
any senate-house in the world. It is every 
way suitable that the representatives of the 
sovereign people should be accommodated in 
a building which would do honor to royalty, 
and be worthy of the most august legislative 
assembly in the world. The capitol is univer- 
sally regarded as an honor to the nation. It 
is elevated 73 feet above tide-water, and af- 
fords a commanding view of the different 
parts of the city and of the surrounding coun- 
try. The building is of freestone, and covers 
an area of more than an acre and a half; the 
length of the front is 352 feet, including the 
wings; the depth of the wings is 121 feet. 
The projection on the east or main front, in- 
cluding the steps, is 65 feet wide ; and another 
on the west front, with the steps, is 83 feet 
wide. 

In the projection on the east front, there is 
a splendid portico of 22 lofty Corinthian col- 

18* 



210 WONDERS OF ART. 

umns, 38 feet high ; and in the west front 
there is a portico of 10 Corinthian columns. 
The height of the building to the top of the 
dome is 120 feet. Under the dome, in the 
middle of the building, is the rotunda, a circu- 
lar room, 95 feet in diameter and of the same 
height, adorned with sculptures in stone pan- 
els in bold relief, containing groups of figures 
representing Smith delivered by the interposi- 
tion of Pocahontas, the landing of the Pilgrims 
on Plymouth rock, and Penn treating with the 
Indians ; and four magnificent paintings by 
Trumbull, with figures as large as life, repre- 
senting the presentation to Congress of the 
Declaration of Independence, in which all the 
figures, 47 in number, in that august assembly 
which William Pitt in the British parliament 
pronounced superior in wisdom to any body 
of men whom he had ever heard or read of, 
are correct likenesses; the surrender of Bur- 
goyne to General Gates, the surrender of Corn- 
wallis at Yorktown, and Washington resigning 
his commission at Annapolis. 

To these have recently been added, the bap- 
tism of Pocahontas by Chapman, and the em- 
barkation of the Pilgrims by Weir. These 
paintings possess great merit as works of art, 
in addition to their commemoration of import- 
ant events in American history. The rotunda 
has recently received a splendid additional 
ornament in Greenough's statue of Washing- 
ton, a colossal figure in a sitting posture, twice 



WONDERS OF ART. &H,^ 

as large as life. On the west of the rotunda 
is the library room of Congress, 92 feet long 
by 34 wide, and is 36 feet in height, containing 
in arched alcoves over 28,000 volumes. 

The foundation of this library, after the 
burning of the capitol and its library- by the 
British in the last war, was laid by the pur- 
chase of the private library of Mr. Jefferson, 
consisting of about 7,000 volumes, many of 
them rare and valuable, for $23,000. This 
library has been enlarged from time to time 
by an annual appropriation by Congress of 
#5,000 for the purpose. 

In the second story of the south wing of the 
capitol is the hall of the house of representa- 
tives, of a semicircular form, 96 feet long and 
60 feet high, with a dome supported by 24 
beautiful columns of variegated marble from 
the Potomac, with capitals of Italian marble 
of the Corinthian order. The circular wall 
opposite th€ speaker is surrounded by a gal- 
lery for men; and the chord of the arc, back of 
the speaker's chair, has a gallery for ladies. 
The room is ornamented with some fine statu- 
ary and paintings, and the whole furniture is 
elegant. The senate chamber is in the second 
story of the north wing of the capitol, and is 
semicircular like that of the representatives, 
but smaller, being 78 feet long and 45 feet 
high. The vice-president's chair is canopied 
with a rich crimson drapery held by the talons 
of a hovering eagle. A light gallery of bronze, 



212 WONDERS OF ART. 

running round the arc in front of the vice-pre- 
sident's chair, is mainly appropriated to ladies. 
There is another gallery above and behind the 
chair supported by fine Ionic columns of varie- 
gated marble, A magnificent chandelier hangs 
in the centre of the room, and the w^hole 
appearance of the furniture of the room is 
splendid. 

Below the senate chamber, and nearly of 
the same form and dimensions, though much 
less elegant, is the room of the supreme court 
of the United States, and there are in the 
building 70 rooms for the accommodation of 
committees and officers of congress. The 
grounds around the capitol are spacious, con- 
taining 22 acres, highly ornamented with 
gravelled walks, shrubbery, and trees ; a naval 
monument, ornamented with statuary, erected 
in honor of the youthful officers who fell in 
the battle of Tripoli ; and fountains, and the 
whole is enclosed by a handsome iron fence. 
The whole cost of the building and its accom- 
paniments has exceeded $2,000,000. 



" NEW YORK CITY HALL. 

The City Hall, heretofore regarded as much 
the finest building in the city, and one of the 
finest in the United States, has a commanding 
situation in the middle of the Park, though 
somewhat in the rear, and shows to great ad- 



WONDERS OF ART. 213 

vantage. It has more ornament than either 
the Exchange or the Custom House, but less 
simple grandeur ; though with its furniture, it 
is, perhaps, the most interesting building in 
the city. 

It is 216 feet long and 105 wide. The front 
and ends are constructed of white marble, and 
the rear of brown freestone. It is two stories 
high above the basement, with a third or attic 
story in the centre building ; and there rises 
from the centre a lofty cupola, containing a 
city clock of fine workmanship, and on the top 
a colossal statue of Justice. In the upper part 
of this cupola is a room occupied by a man, 
whose business it is to give alarm in cases of 
fires: and from this elevated position he is 
able to overlook the whole city. Behind this 
there is another less elevated cupola, with 
eight beautiful Ionic columns, which contains 
the City Hall bell, weighing 6,910 pounds, 
whose deep and solemn tones often sound the 
knell of property, and by the different number 
of strokes indicates the district of the city in 
which a fire occurs. 

The front of the City Hall is ornamented 
with columns and pilasters of the Ionic, Corin- 
thian, and Composite orders, rising above each 
other in a regular gradation. The building is 
entered in front by a flight of 12 marble steps. 
In the centre is a double staircase of marble 
steps, at the top of which is a circular gallery 
floored with marble, from which 10 marble^ 



214 WONDERS OF ART. 

columns of the Corinthian order ascend to the 
ceiling, where there is a handsome panelled 
dome ornamented with stucco, and a skylight 
which gives light to the interior of the build- 
ing. There are halls which lead from the 
centre to each end of the building in each 
story. In the basement and the stones there 
are 28 offices and public rooms, the most con- 
spicuous of which are the Governor's Room, 
and the chambers of the Common Council and 
Assistant Aldermen. 

The Governor's Room is appropriated to the 
use of the governor of the state when he visits 
the city, and is used as a reception-room for 
other distinguished men who have occasionally 
been here. It is 52 by 20 feet. The walls of 
the room are hung with a fine collection of 
portraits, including the governors of the state, 
the mayors of the city since the revolution, 
some of the Dutch governors, and the principal 
military and naval heroes of the late war, all 
of which are regarded as excellent likenesses, 
and many of them are full-length portraits. 

The Common Council Room is 42 by 30 ieety 
and the president occupies the identical chair 
occupied by General Washington when he 
presided over the first American Congress 
w^hich assembled in New York. It is sur- 
mounted, as is meet, by a canopy. The seats 
of the aldermen are arranged in a semicircular 
form, in the centre of which is the table for 
the clerk. The room contains several full* 



WONDERS OF ART. 215 

length portraits painted by Trumbull, of which 
that of Washington is thought to be the best 
in existence, when he was in the prime of life. 
The room of the assistant aldermen is hand- 
somely fitted up. 

The Superior Court Room is very neat and 
convenient, 42 by 30 feet, and neatly fitted up 
for its purpose. But be who looks over the 
several apartments of this building will obtain 
a higher idea of it, than he can from any con- 
cise description. The building was commen- 
ced in 1803 and completed in 1812, and cost 
$538,734. 

To the east of the City Hall, in the Park, is 
the Hall of Records, two stories high, with a 
lofty portico of four Ionic pillars on each front ; 
and in the rear of it is the New City Hall, 
which was the old almshouse, and contains 15 
offices, besides the Marine Court Room and 
the rooms of the American Institute, the latter 
containing a valuable library and various in- 
teresting models of machines. 

To the north of the City Hall, between Cen- 
tre, Elm, Leonard^ and Franklin streets, is the 
Hall of Justice, a unique and beautiful build- 
ing of Egj^ptian architecture. It is 253 feet 
long and 200 feet wide, the front of which is oc- 
cupied by the main building, and other outer 
portions of w^ilch consist of lofty walls, with 
apartments in some of their parts. Within 
this enclosure and towards its back, is the 
house of detention or prison, 142 feet long and 



216 WONDERS OF ART. 

45 feet wide, winch is entirely separate from 
the outer wall and building, and consists of 
148 cells for different classes of prisoners. 

The court of sessions occupies a part pro- 
jecting back from the front building, the roof 
of which is supported by lofty Egyptian col- 
umns. From this there is an ascent by twelve 
steps, between two massive columns, to an 
open area of 50 feet square, which has eight 
large columns supporting the ceiling above. 
From the area there is an entrance to the va- 
rious offices and apartments of the building. 

The windows, which extend to the height 
of two stories, have massive frames and cor- 
nices, ornamented with the winged globe and 
serpents. The two fronts on Franklin and 
Leonard streets have each two entrances with 
two massive columns each ; and the back en- 
trance forms a carriage-way for taking pris- 
oners to and from the house of detention. 
This building, though handsome of its kind, 
has a heavy and gloomy aspect, which has 
acquired for it the name of the Egyptian 
Tombs. It is constructed of a light-colored 
granite from Hallowell, Maine. 



PENNSYLVANIA OLD STATE HOUSE. 

The State House, now called Independence 
Hall, was begun in 1729 and finished in 1735, 
on the northern side of the square bounded by 



WONDERS OF ART. 217 

Chesnut, Walnut, Fifth, and Sixth streets. The 
wings, extending from the main building to 
Fifth and Sixth streets, are of modern con- 
struction. The wood work of the steeple, by 
which the building was first surmounted, was 
found to be so much decayed, that about the 
year 1774 it was taken down, leaving only a 
small belfry to cover the bell for the use of the 
town clock ; and so remained until 1829, when 
the present steeple was erected on the plan of 
the original one which had been removed. 

The bell for the first steeple was imported 
from England in 1752, but was broken by ae^ 
cident when first hung up. A new one was 
cast in Philadelphia, under the direction of 
Isaac Norris, then speaker of the colonial as- 
sembly, to whom we are probably indebted 
for the remarkable motto inscribed upon it, 
and which at that early day was little thought 
to be so singularly prophetic of its future use — 
" Proclaim liberty throughout the land, and to 
all the people thereof:^ 

Twenty-four years afterwards a period ar- 
rived " in the course of human events," when 
the memorable Declaration of Independence 
was signed in the building beneath this very 
bell, and its joyous tones rang loud and clear 
as it proclaimed to anxious thousands, that 
they were now a free and independent people. 
The chamber in which the Declaration was 
signed is on the first floor, at the eastern end 
of the centre building. 

19 



218 WONDERS OF ART. 

Some years since the interior wood was re- 
moved to make room for more modern decora- 
tions ; but a more patriotic feeling and a bet- 
ter taste than those which had dictated this 
change, soon demanded the restoration of the 
hall to its original simplicity, and it now pre- 
sents the same appearance as it did when the 
representatives of the people, assembled within 
it, declared these United States to be " free, 
sovereign, and independent." Such an edifice 
is surely worthy of being known throughout 
the land, for the historic associations inspired 
by it, if not on account of architectural perfec- 
tion. Every child and every adult in the coun- 
try should have the benefit of these associa- 
tions. By such means patriotism is kept alive 
and the love of liberty is perpetuated. 



FORTIFICATIONS OF QUEBEC 

This seat of ancient dominion — now hoary 
with the lapse of more than two centuries — 
formerly the seat of a French empire in the 
west — lost and won by the blood of gallant 
armies and of illustrious commanders — throned 
on a rock, and defended by all the proud de- 
fiance of war, is the strongest town in Ameri- 
ca, and with the exception of Gibraltar is the 
strongest in the world. It is situated on a 
bold promontory, formed at the junction of the 
river St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, and 



WONDERS OF ART. 219 

rising more than 300 feet above the level of 
the water. 

It is, therefore, possessed of great natural 
advantages ; the lofty perpendicular precipices 
of rock, which, on the south and east, separate 
a great part of the low^er town from the upper, 
constitute in themselves, on those sides, one 
insurmountable barrier ; the river St. Charles, 
with its shallow waters and low flats of sand 
and mud drained almost dry by the retiring 
tide, forms an insuperable impediment to the 
erection of commanding works, or to the lo- 
cation of ships on the east and north, not to 
mention that all this ground is perfectly com- 
manded by the guns above. 

The only vulnerable point is on the west 
and south from the plains of Abraham. Cape 
Diamond, the highest point of the town, it is 
true, is rather more elevated than any part of 
the plains, but the highest ground on the plains 
of Abraham commands most of the works on 
this side of the town ; besides, there is no bar- 
rier of rock, no river, ravine, marsh, or other 
natural obstacle to hinder an approach upon 
this side ; this is the vulnerable side of Quebec, 
and here, therefore, it is fortified with the most 
anxious care. 

The distance across the peninsula, from 
one river to the other, is very nearly one 
mile. The circuit within the walls, is two 
miles and three-quarters ; immediately with- 
out, it is probably three miles, and the aver- 



220 WONDERS OF ART. 

age diameter is very nearly six-sevenths of a 
mile. 

A complete wall of massy stone, hewn and 
laid up with elegance as well as strength, 
completely encircles the town, and is furnished 
with strong massy arches and gates, and with 
deep ditches. 

The walls vary much, in different parts, in 
height and thickness. Everywhere, however, 
they are high enough to render escalade very 
difficult, and a breach almost hopeless, hi the 
strongest parts, next to the plains of Abraham, 
they are fifty feet thick and equally high. 
Even the lofty precipices of naked rock are 
surmounted with a stone wall and with can- 
non, and the highest points are crowned with 
towers and distinct batteries. In general, the 
curtains of the wall are looped for musketry, 
and projecting bastions present their artillery 
towards the assailant in every direction, and 
of course so as to rake the ditches. 

Immediately adjacent to the inner wall, 
which we have already remarked is fifty feet 
thick, runs a deep ditch, and then there is an 
exterior but lower wall and another ditch, 
both of which must be scaled before the main 
wall can be approached. A storming party 
would be dreadfully exposed while mounting 
this exterior wall. The avenue to the gate 
St. Louis, which opens to the plains of Abra- 
ham, is bounded on both sides by a high wall, 
and makes several turns in zigzag. At every 



WONDERS OF ART. 221 

turn, cannon point directly at the approacher ; 
and generally down every ditch, and in every 
possible direction where the wall can be ap- 
proached, great guns are ready to cut dow^n 
the assailants. 

The promontory of the rock which consti- 
tutes the loftiest point of the fortifications, is 
called Cape Diamond, and upon this is erected 
the famous citadel of Quebec. This is not, as 
one might suppose, a, building or castle cover- 
ed with a roof ; it is open to the heavens, and 
differs from the rest of the works only in being 
more elevated, stronger, and therefore more 
commanding. The highest part of the citadel 
is Brock's battery, which is a mound artifi- 
cially raised, higher than every thing else, and 
mounted with cannon pointing to the plains 
of iVbraham. From the citadel, the view of 
the river, of the town, and of the surrounding 
country, is of course extremely grand and 
beautiful. 

Within the walls are numerous magazines, 
furnished with every implement and prepara- 
tion, and more or less proof against the various 
missiles of war. Piles of cannon balls are ev- 
erywhere to be seen, and the cannons mount- 
ed on the walls and other places amount to 
several hundred. 

Beyond the walls, on the plains of Abraham, 
are the four Martello towers. They are solidly 
constructed, about forty feet high, the diameter 
at the base being about the same, as they 

19* 



222 WONDERS OF ART. 

have cannon on their tops. They of course 
sweep the whole plain and effectually com- 
mand it ; the particular object of their con- 
struction is to prevent an enemy from occupy- 
ing the high ground on the plains of Abraham. 
These towers are very strong on the side far- 
thest from the town, and weaker on the side 
next to it, that they may be battered from it 
should an enemy obtain possession of them. 
On the whole, Quebec is so strong in its de- 
fences and so well garrisoned, that an attempt 
to take it by any force whatever would un- 
doubtedly prove a fruitless undertaking. 



CATACOMBS OF ROME. 

Next to the Egyptian catacombs, the most 
extensive with which the moderns are ac- 
quainted, are those of Ancient Rome. Though 
their antiquity perhaps is not equal to that of 
some others dispersed throughout the world, 
an unusual interest is excited by their contain- 
ing the remains of a people who had rendered 
themselves so illustrious, and whose history is 
so familiar to our knowledge. 

The Roman catacombs are of great extent. 
Some maintain, that entering close to the city 
they stretch several leagues beyond it ; but 
the precise destination and limits of these, if 
they actually do exist, are not ascertained. 
Some others have for centuries been frequently 



WONDERS OF ART. 223 

explored ; in the course of which, a zealous 
antiquarian, Anthony Bosio, who has amply 
elucidated this subject, ventured to pass entire 
days within them, had provisions carried there, 
and notwithstanding the danger of the enter- 
prise, traversed their utmost extremities. Yet 
the hazard of this is great : persons have been 
known to lose their way ; and the passages 
are of such intricacy, that it is unsafe to pen- 
etrate their recesses without a clue. 

The catacombs of Rome, like those of most 
other places, are long, narrow, subterraneous 
galleries, crossing each other at right angles, 
or passing oif obliquely. Chambers at each 
side occasionally appear, and a glimmering of 
light is admitted by openings above, distant 
by intervals of 300 yards or more. But in the 
interior it is dark as night. The excavations 
are invariably under the earth, in the puzzo- 
lana whereon the city is built : they are ne- 
cessarily narrow to preserve the roof, and in 
some parts are vaulted. Nevertheless, the 
earth frequently detaches itself from above, 
and obstructs or totally blocks up the passages. 
There are cavities along each side, which 
have formerly been appropriated for the re- 
ception of lamps ; and deep niches penetrate 
into the walls, wherein the bodies of the de- 
ceased were deposited. These niches are in- 
variably in proportion to the size of the indi- 
vidual ; those of women and children being 
smaller than the rest. 



224 WONDERS OF ART. 

The bodies are regularly arranged in one 
tier of niches above another, along the sides 
of the galleries, each niche of sufficient capa- 
city according to the number it was required 
to contain, and closed at the foot by a single 
brick. In general, the galleries can admit of 
a man traversing them with facility, and there 
two or three rows are seen : in some places 
they are more lofty ; and Bosio relates, that 
one which he discovered was so high, as to 
receive eight or ten bodies above each other 
in the sides. 

Parts of the same gallery, however, were so 
low, that he had to advance bending down- 
ward, or crawling on his breast, to the differ- 
ent streets or passages ; probably the conse- 
quence of the superincumbent earth having 
given way. The cement by which the tombs 
are closed, unless where yielding from too 
great desiccation, is yet entire ; and on re- 
moving the brick to inspect the interior, the 
skeletons of the deceased appear in good pre- 
servation. In elucidation of this fact, let us 
quote the words of an adventurous explorer, 
who recently penetrated these gloomy man- 
sions. 

"The brick obstructing the aperture of a 
catacomb being removed, a body, apparently 
that of a young woman, was discovered. Even 
yet all the teeth were preserved in her jaws. 
Her bones were perfectly covered with sta- 
lactites, exhibiting a most singular spectacle ; 



WONDERS OF ART. 225 

for the light, reflected by the motion of the 
torches, seemed to animate the body, and the 
image of the spectator was multiplied a thou- 
sand fold, by the most entire portion of the 
skull." "Another was opened, wherein a 
skeleton turned towards the east was seen. 
The hands were crossed on the breast, and but 
few teeth were in the jaws ; it seemed to be 
that of an old man. When my guide stretched 
one arm to the head and the other to the feet, 
designing to raise the skeleton, it immediately 
fell into a whitish humid dust. Nothing, ex- 
cept the substance of the teeth, which were 
eleven in number, remained ; the whole skele- 
ton had vanished from view." 

The catacombs of Rome, besides the tombs, 
contain edifices which, in the days of the most 
prevalent superstitions, were churches, and 
where it is probable the mysteries of the ear- 
lier Christians were celebrated. Many inscrip- 
tions are still extant, and elegantly sculptured 
sarcophagi have been obtained from these 
catacombs. But above all they abound with 
paintings in fresco, representing, like those of 
Egypt, an infinite variety of subjects ; and se- 
pulchral lamps, as also vases and lachrymato- 
ries, are frequently discovered in tombs which 
have escaped the pillage of the more barbar- 
ous ages. 

With respect to the precise era when these 
cemeteries were constructed, and the persons 
for whose reception they were appropriated, 



226 WONDERS OF ART. 

we are opposed by many uncertainties. Some 
ascribe them to the ancient Romans ; others 
bring them to a period about the birth of 
Christ ; and there are not wanting intelligent 
antiquarians, by whom they are considered as 
almost solely for a secret deposite of those who 
suffered martyrdom, while the rage of perse- 
cution threatened the extermination of Chris- 
tians. It is possible that all the three opinions 
are right. 

Though cremation was general among the 
Romans, we do not learn that it was univer- 
sally practised : children were not burnt, nor 
those in a state of servitude ; and besides, if 
we may credit Pliny, this custom was intro- 
duced long after the building of the city. In- 
scriptions prove that many who were not 
Christians were interred here ; and numerous 
emblems, epitaphs, and histories show, that it 
was a sepulchre for Christians, among whom 
were martyrs. The academician of Cortona 
saw a skull which he conjectured to have been 
violently separated from the vertebrae of the 
neck ; and Bosio relates, that in opening a 
tomb, he found a skull cleft by a hatchet, still 
sticking in it, and observed others apparently 
fractured by violence. 

In another part of the catacombs, there was 
found a horrible kind of pincers, with which 
the flesh was torn from the bones of martyrs ; 
and also vessels full of concrete blood, which 
crumbled to earth, but on being wxtted imme- 



V/ONBERS OF ART. 227 

diately showed its crimson hue. Some of the 
Roman emperors were deposited in the cata- 
combs of the Vatican. There the body of 
Honorius was discovered, 1144 years subse- 
quent to his decease, with many jewels and 
ornaments in his tombj weighing forty pounds 
of solid gold. 



HISTORY OF MANUFACTURES. 

Manufactures may be defined, the arts by 
which natural productions are brought into 
the state or form in which they are consumed 
or used. The principal manufactures are 
those which fabricate the various articles of 
clothing; as the woollen manufacture, the 
leather manufacture in part, the cotton man- 
ufacture, the linen manufacture, and the silk 
manufacture ; others supply articles of house- 
hold furniture, as the manufactures of glass, 
porcelain, earthenware, and of most of the 
metals in part ; the iron manufacture furnishes 
implements of agriculture and weapons of 
war ; and the paper manufacture supplies a 
material for communicating ideas and perpet- 
uating knowledge. Notwithstanding the pres- 
ent pre-eminence of Great Britain in manu- 
factures, they had begun to flourish in various 
other parts of Europe long before they were 
attempted in that country ; and the few arti- 
cles needed were obtained from the continent 



228 WONDERS OF ART. 

in exchange for wool, hides, tin, and such other 
produce as the island in a very uncultivated 
state could supply. 

It was enacted, in 1337, that no vs^ool should 
be exported ; that none should wear any but 
English cloth ; that no cloths made beyond 
the seas should be imported ; that foreign cloth- 
workers might come into the king's dominions, 
and should have such franchises as might sat- 
isfy them. Before this time, the English were 
little more than shepherds and wool-sellers. 
This may be considered the commencement 
of the splendid career in the political economy 
of that country. Since their establishment ol' 
manuikctures, the progress of improvement 
has in most instances been remarkably great, 
particularly of late years, in consequence of 
an increased knowledge of the properties of 
various materials, vast improvements in all 
kinds of machinerj'', and the great capitals in- 
vested. 

The value of British manufactures, exported 
to all countries, on an average of six years, 
ending at the breaking out of the American 
revolutionary war, was but little more than 
ten millions sterling — at the present time, it 
is estimated to exceed forty millions. A most 
useful lesson in political economy might be 
learned from the history of that country. For 
it is well known, that the manufactures of 
England are of vast extent, and give employ- 
ment to a large portion of her population ; and 



WONDERS OP ART. 229 

such is the ingenuity of her numerous artisans, 
such are the contrivances invented for the 
abridgment of labor, such is the minuteness 
with which the industry of the country is di- 
vided ; such the perfection to which the work- 
men, by patient perseverance, each in his own 
particular task, have brought their respective 
arts; and lastly, so great is the capital which 
has been accumulated during ages of success- 
ful industry, that England, notwithstanding 
her heavy taxation and the high wages paid 
for labor, is still enabled in nearly every coun- 
try to which her commodities are exported, to 
undersell the foreign manufacturer in his own 
market, and to inundate almost every country 
in the world with English goods. 

And it is deemed safe to predict, that if the 
manufactures of this, or of any other country, 
should successfully and extensively compete 
with those of Britain, her present exalted rank 
among nations cannot be sustained, and, per- 
haps, her very existence would be jeoparded, 
unless sources of wealth and of power as yet 
unknown should come to her aid. 

A high degree of perfection in the arts and 
manufactures is generally found only in coun- 
tries where there is a high degree of civiliza- 
tion of the inhabitants. The most savage and 
barbarous nations are ignorant of the art of 
weaving. They usually make their clothing 
of the skins of animals. The Tartars, and 
gome other barbarous nations, form a kind of 

20 



880 WONDERS OP ART; 

felt, like that of which our hats are composed^ 
from the wool of sheep, or the hair of camels. 
In many of the islands of the Pacific, the 
natives use mats for their covering, or form a 
species of cloth from the bark of trees. There 
are, nevertheless, a few exceptions. The art 
of weaving is understood by a small number 
of the barbarous nations of Africa and Asia ; 
but the fabric is produced by a few simple 
and rude implements, and with very great la- 
bor. The weaver fixes his threads to the 
ground by small stakes in the open air, and 
removes his singular loom at night. Yet, even 
in this way, India produces cotton fabrics su- 
perior to almost any in the world. Many of 
the India silks also, the Cashmere shawls, and 
the carpets of Cabul and Persia, are made in 
the highest degree of excellence* 



WORKING OF METALS. 

The working of metals appears to be the 
foundation of all the arts, and forms the most 
important employment of civilized man. This 
fact is the most evident, as the principal tools 
and instruments used in almost every descrip- 
tion of labor are made of metal. Hence, in 
all countries where there are advances made 
in civilization, we find corresponding degrees 
of perfection in the manufacture of this mate- 
rial. England, probably, surpasses every other 



WONDIiRS OF ART. 231 

nation in this respect, whether we consider the 
extent, variety, or excellence of its metallic 
productions. Sheffield is unrivalled in its cut- 
lery ; and Birmingham has been called the 
toy-shop of Europe. 

It has been stated, that from the musket es- 
tablishment of the latter place, no less than 
14,500 have been delivered per week, into the 
ordnance office for the use of government. In 
Birmingham, also, buttons of every description 
are manufactured to an incalculable extent ; 
and, it is said, that at the pin works, 12,000 
pins can be cut and pointed in an hour. 

London and Liverpool produce the best 
clocks and watches in use ; and the former is 
unrivalled in the construction of mathematical, 
astronomical, and philosophical instruments. 
It has been estimated, that the iron, tin, and 
lead manufactures of that country, may be 
valued at £10,000,000, employing 200,000 per- 
sons ; those of copper and brass, may be val- 
ued at £3,600,000, employing 60,000 persons ; 
and those of steel, plating, hardware, and toys, 
may be valued at £4,000,000, employing at 
least 70,000 persons ; making a total amount 
of £17,600,000, and giving employment to 
330,000 persons. 

Germany is said to rank next to England in 
metallic manufactures. In Prussia, many ar- 
ticles are made with peculiar ingenuity and 
skill. Clocks and watches are made in great 
numbers, in Switzerland, France, and Germa- 



232 WONDERS OF ART, 

ny ; but they are generally inferior in quality 
to those made in England. Jewellery is man- 
ufactured to a great extent in France, Swit- 
zerland, and the Netherlands ; and France is 
distinguished for the more elegant metallic 
articles. 

Holland and Germany are remarkable for 
toys. Turkey, and especially Damascus, has 
long been celebrated for unrivalled skill in the 
manufacture of sword-blades and other cutting 
instruments. The Damascus sabres are of 
such peculiar quality as to be perfectly elastic ; 
they never break, and iron will yield under 
their edge. This art has extended to Prussia 
and some of the neighboring countries. The 
Japanese are said to surpass the Chinese and 
Hindoos in working metals, and to make in- 
struments of steel little inferior to those of 
Turkey. 



MANUFACTURE OF GLASS. 

The use of glass is too common, and the 
manufacture of it too important, not to be no- 
ticed under this head of our work. Although 
it is a substance too well known to need de- 
finition ; and although the process of making 
it does not come within our proposed limits, it 
may not be improper to mention, that the va- 
rious colors, with which it is often tinged, are 
occasioned by mixing with it, while in fusion, 



WONDERS OF ART. 233 

some one of the metallic oxides. Glass is 
made to a greater or less extent, in most civ- 
ilized and half-civilized countries. 

France, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Eng- 
land, excel in this manufacture, and produce 
the finest mirrors and cut glass. The manu- 
facture of crown and cut glass has been car- 
ried to a high degree of perfection in our own 
country ; and that of Boston and Pittsburg 
is advantageously compared with the best 
made in Europe. In the history of glass there 
is a fact deserving of record ; it is related by 
Pliny, that the discovery was owing to the 
following accident. Some merchants, with 
soda as part of their freight, had cast anchor 
at the mouth of the river Belus, in Phoenicia, 
and were dressing their dinner on the sand, 
making use of large lumps of soda as supports 
of their kettles. The heat of the fire melted 
the soda and the silicious earth together : the 
result was glass. The hint was not lost, and 
a manufacture in that trading country was in- 
stantly established, and to this place it was 
for a long time confined. 

Glass was undoubtedly made in great per- 
fection among the ancients. In their accounts 
we read of drinking glasses, glass prisms, and 
colored glasses of various kinds. Glass was 
first used for windows in the third century of 
the Christian era, but it did not come into 
common use till very long after that period. 
The value of the glass manufactured annually 

20* 



234 WONDERS OF ART. 

in England,, is £1,500,000 sterling, and about 
36,000 persons are constantly employed in the 
production of it. 



MANUFACTURE OF PORCELAIN. 

Porcelain, or China-ware as it was originally 
called, has become an important article of 
manufacture. It was formerly procured only 
in China, or of an inferior quality in Japan. 
It is now manufactured in Berlin, in Dresden, 
in France, and in England, superior to that 
obtained from China. The annual value of 
the earthenware and porcelain manufacture 
in England, is £2,000,000 sterling, and the 
number of persons employed in the work is 
45,000. 

The fine Dresden porcelain, that of Berlin, 
the French porcelain, and the finer kinds of 
English porcelain, are manufactured from 
clay, which, from the use to which it is ap- 
plied, has received the name of porcelain earth; 
and which appears, in general, to be derived 
from the decomposition of the feldspar of gran- 
ite. Porcelain is also made in Copenhagen, 
Vienna, and some other parts of Europe. 

Other species of earthenware, of a*fine qual- 
ity, are most extensively manufactured in 
England, France, Germany, Denmark, and the 
Netherlands. Oar own country depends chief- 
ly on England and Germany for porcelain and 



WONDERS OF ART. 235 

the finer kinds of earthenware, having as yet 
manufactures of an inferior quality only. 



CAPITOL OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

This beautiful edifice is situated in Concord, 
in the county of Merrimac, upon a gently in- 
clined plane between Main and State streets, 
and has two regular fronts, east and west. 
The centre of the building is fifty feet in front 
by fifty-seven in depth ; the wings are each 
thirty-eight feet in front by forty-nine in depth ; 
the whole making a parallelogram of one 
hundred and twenty-six feet in length, by for- 
ty-nine in width, with the addition of a projec- 
tion in the centre of each front of four feet. It 
is two stories above the basement, which rises 
five feet above the surface of the ground ; the 
first story is nineteen feet, the second eighteen 
feet in the wings, and thirty-one in the centre. 

The roofs of the wings are levelled at the 
outer ends, and rise ten feet against the body 
of the centre ; the roof of the centre rises thir- 
teen, presenting gable ends in front ; from the 
middle of which the cupola rises, eighteen feet 
square, to the height of fifteen feet above the 
ridge, thence in an octangular form thirteen 
feet, in diameter seventeen feet, and is covered 
with a roof in the form of an inverted acorn, 
rising to the height of nine feet, and surmount- 
ed with a gilt ball, thirty-three inches in di- 



236 WONDERS OF ART. 

ameter, on which stands an eagle, six and a 
half feet in height, with its wings partially 
expanded. Each front has in its lower story 
three doors and six windows, and in its upper 
story, nine windows with a semi-elliptical 
window in each gable end ; four windows in 
the south and two in the north end. 

The outside walls of the building are of 
granite stone, hammered and built in a plain 
style ; the only ornament being a Tuscan 
frontispiece of stone- work at each central front 
door. The roof and cupola are of wooden 
materials. The roof is ornamented with a 
coving appropriate to the Doric order, and a 
balustrade upon the wings. The square part 
of the cupola is ornamented with twelve Ionic 
columns, three at each corner, placed in a tri- 
angular position, with an appropriate coving 
and balustrade. The octangular part has one 
Ionic column at each corner, surmounted with 
an urn. 

In the second story of the centre is the Re- 
presentatives' chamber, with an arched ceil- 
ing rising thirty feet from the floor, elegantly 
finished with stucco work. The north wing 
contains the Senate-chamber, eighteen feet in 
height, with a beautiful ceiling of plastering, 
ornamented with stucco work, supported by 
four Ionic columns and an equal number of 
pilasters. This room, for its neatness and ele- 
gance of finishing, is not perhaps inferior to 
any in the United States. In the south wing 



VVONDEicS OP ART. 237 

are contained the Council-chamber and ante- 
chamber, both of which are finished in a hand- 
some style. In the same wing in the lower 
story, which is divided into two parts, are the 
Secretary's and Treasurer's offices, over which 
is a suite of committee-rooms. 

In the north wing, under the Senate-cham- 
ber, is a spacious room intended for public 
hearings before committees of the legislature. 
This room is also conveniently arranged, and 
is sufficiently commodious for the accommo- 
dation of the Superior Court when holding a 
law term. Under the Representatives' cham- 
ber is an open area, in which are eight Doric 
columns supporting the flooring above. This 
area, w^ith the adjacent passages in the wings, 
cooled by the current of fresh air passing 
through the spacious doors and windows open- 
ing into them, affords, in the warm month of 
June, a delightful retreat to legislators, w^hen 
fatigued by long attention to their arduous 
duties, or heated by the ardor of debate above 
stairs ; and it is by no means an uncommon 
case to see them availing themselves of the 
benefits of this pleasant retirement. 

The lot on which the State House stands 
contains something more than two acres, en- 
closed on its sides with a solid wall of ham- 
mered stone about five feet high ; the front 
fences are of stone posts and sills, and iron 
castings, with gates of the same material. 



238 WONDERS OF ART. 



ANATOMICAL DISSECTIONS 

Dissection, literally, is the cutting to pieces 
any part of an animal or vegetable for the 
purpose of examining its structure. The dis- 
section of the human body was but little prac- 
tised by the ancients. The old Egyptians held 
it in great abhorrence, and even pursued with 
stones those men, who in embalming the dead 
were obliged to cut open their bodies. The 
Greeks were prevented by the principles of 
their religion from studying anatomy, since 
these required them to bury the bodies of the 
deceased as soon as possible. 

Even in the time of Hippocrates anatomical 
knowledge was imperfect, and was probably 
derived from the dissection of animals ; the 
skeleton, however, was better known. When 
in later times, under the Ptolemies, Alexan- 
dria, in Egypt, became the seat of the arts 
and sciences, anatomy was also brought to a 
high degree of perfection, by Herophilus of 
Chalcedon, 300 b. c, and by Erasistratus of 
Chios. According to the testimony of Celsus, 
the former obtained permission to open living 
animals. 

Since that period, with the increase of know- 
ledge generally, the prejudice against dissec- 
tions has been subsiding ; and the familiar 
acquaintance with the human structure, alone 
to be obtained in this manner, is now deemed 
essential in the education of a skilful surgeon. 



WONDERS OF ART* 239 

Among the Arabians, anatomy was not prac« 
tised ; it was forbidden in their religion. Their 
physicians, therefore, took their anatomical 
information merely from the writings of the 
Greeks, particularly from those of Galen. Thus 
anatomy was checked in its progress for sev- 
eral centuries. 

Finally, in the fourteenth century, individu- 
als arose, who, not satisfied with the anatom- 
ical instruction of the age, ventured to make 
investigations of their own. The superstitious 
fear of the dissection of human corpses, which 
had hitherto prevailed, appeared to subside 
by degrees, when a philosophical spirit gave 
birth to more liberty of thought. Mondini di 
Luzzi, professor at Bologna, first dissected two 
corpses, in 1315, and soon afterwards publish- 
ed a description of the human body, which for 
a long time was the common compendium of 
anatomy, though many errors were contained 
in it. 

From this time it became custom_ary, in all 
universities, to make public dissections once 
or twice a year. Anatomy, however, made 
but slow progress, since the dissections were 
intended only as illustrations of the writings 
of Galen and the compendium of Mondini. 
Montagnana alone, professor of Padua in the 
fifteenth century, could boast of having per- 
formed fourteen dissections, which was then 
a great number. 



240 WONDERS OF ART. 



PORCELAIN TOWER AT NANKIN. 

This elegant and commodious building ma}'* 
be regarded as a fine specimen of oriental pa- 
godas. The tower is about two hundred feet 
in height, and derives its name from having a 
china or porcelain coating. The Portuguese 
were the first to bestow on these superb edifi^ 
ces the title of pagodas, and to devote them 
to devotional purposes. There can be little 
doubt, however, that in many instances they 
have been rather erected as public memorials 
or ornaments, like the columns of the Greeks 
and Romans. 

Mr. Ellis, in his journal of the late embassy 
to China, relates that, in the company of three 
gentlemen of the embassy, he succeeded in 
passing completely through the uninhabited 
part of the city of Nankin, and in reaching the 
gateway visible from the Lion Hill. The ob- 
ject of the party was to have penetrated 
through the streets to the Porcelain Tower, 
apparently distant two miles. To this, how- 
ever, the soldiers who accompanied them, and 
who, from their willingness in allowing them 
to proceed thus far, were entitled to considera- 
tion, made so many objections, that they were 
forced to desist, and to content themselves 
with proceeding to a temple on a neighboring 
hill, from which they had a complete view of 
the city. From this station the Porcelain Tow- 
er presented itself as a most magnificent object. 



"Wor^i>::Tiii or aut. 2 



EGYPTIAN TOMBS AND MUMMIES. 

GouRNou is a tract of rocks, about two miles 
in length, at the foot of the Lybian mountains, 
on the west of Thebes, and was the burial- 
place of the great city of a hundred gates. 
Every part of these rocks is cut out by art, in 
the form of large and small chambers, each 
of which has its separate entrance ; and though 
they are very close to each other, it is seldom 
that there is any interior communication from 
one to another. I can truly say, it is impossi- 
ble to give any description sufficient to convey 
the smallest idea of those subterranean abodes 
and their inhabitants. There are no sepul- 
chres in any part of the world like them ; 
there are no excavations, or mines, that can 
be compared to these truly astonishing places ; 
and no exact description can be given of their 
interior, owing to the difficulty of visiting these 
recesses. The inconvenience of entering into 
them is such, that it is not every one who can 
support the exertion. 

A traveller is generally satisfied when he 
has seen the large hall, the gallery, the stair- 
case, and as far as he can conveniently go : 
besides, he is taken up with the strange works 
he observes cut in various places, and painted 
on each side of the walls ; so that when he 
comes to a narrow and difficult passage, or a 
descent to the bottom of a well or cavity, he 
declines taking such trouble, naturally suppos- 

21 



243 WONDfiRS OF ART. 

ing that he cannot see in these abysses any 
thing so magnificent as what he sees above, 
and consequently deeming it useless to proceed 
any farther. 

Of some of these tombs many persons could 
not withstand the suffocating air, which often 
causes fainting. A vast quantity of dust rises, 
so fine that it enters into the throat and nos- 
trils, and chokes the nose and mouth to such a 
degree, that it requires great power of lungs 
to resist it, and the strong effluvia of the mum- 
mies. This is not all ; the entry or passage 
where the bodies arc, is roughly cut in the 
rocks, and the falling of the sand from the up- 
per part or ceiling of the passage causes it to 
be nearly filled up. In some places there is 
not more than a vacancy of a foot left, w^hich 
you must contrive to pass through in a creep- 
ing posture like a snail, on pointed and keen 
stones, that cut like glass. 

After getting through these passages, some 
of them two or three hundred yards long, you 
generally find a more commodious place, per- 
haps high enough to sit. But what a place 
of rest ! surrounded by bodies, by heaps of 
mummies in all directions ; which, previous to 
my being accustomed to the sight, impressed 
me with horror. The blackness of the wall, 
the faint light given by the candles or torches 
for want of air, the different objects that sur- 
rounded me, seeming to converse with each 
other, and the Arabs with the candles or 



WONDERS OF ART. 243 

torches in their hands, naked and covered with 
dust, themselves resembling living mummies, 
absolutely formed a scene that cannot be de- 
scribed. 

In such a situation I found myself several 
times, and often returned exhausted and faint- 
ing, till at last I became inured to it, and in- 
different to what I suffered, except from the 
dust, which never failed to choke my throat 
and nose ; and though, fortunately, I am des- 
titute of the sense of smelling, I could taste 
that the mummies were rather unpleasant to 
swallow. 

After the exertion of entering into such a 
place, through a passage of fifty, a hundred, 
three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, 
nearly overcome I sought a resting place, 
found one, and contrived to sit ; but when my 
weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it 
crushed like a band-box. I naturally had re- 
course to my hands to sustain my weight, but 
they found no better support ; so that I sank 
altogether among the broken mummies, with 
a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, 
which raised such a dust as kept me motion- 
less for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it 
subsided again. I could not remove from the 
place, however, without increasing it, and ev- 
ery step I took I crushed a mummy in some 
part or other. 

Once I was conducted from such a place to 
another resembling it, through a passage of 



244 WONDERS OF ART. 

about twenty feet in length, and no wider than 
what a body could be forced through. It was 
choked with mummies, and I could not pass 
without putting my face in contact with that 
of some decayed Egyptian ; but as the passage 
inclined downward, my own weight helped 
me on ; however, I could not avoid being cov- 
ered with bones, legs, arms, and heads, rolling 
from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave 
to another, ali full of mummies piled up in va- 
rious ways, some standing, some lying, and 
some on their heads. 

The purpose of my researches was to rob 
the Egyptians of their papyri ; of which I 
found a few hidden in their breasts, under their 
arms, in the space above the knees, or on the 
legs, and covered by the numerous folds of 
cloth that envelop the mummy. The people 
of Gournou, who make a trade of antiquities 
of this sort, are very jealous of strangers, and 
keep them as secret as possible ; deceiving 
travellers, by pretending that they have arriv- 
ed at the end of the pits, when they are scarce- 
ly at the entrance. 

I must not omit, that among these tombs we 
saw some which contained the mummies of 
animals intermixed with human bodies. There 
were bulls, cows, sheep, monkeys, foxes, bats, 
crocodiles, fishes, and birds in them : idols oft- 
en occur ; and one tomb was filled with no- 
thing but cats, carefully folded in red and 
white linen, the head covered by a mask re- 



WONDERS OF ART. 245 

presenting the cat, and made of the same linen. 
I have opened all these sorts of animals. Of 
the bull, the calf, and the sheep, there is no 
part but the head which is covered with linen, 
and the horns project out of the cloth ; the 
rest of the body being represented by two 
pieces of wood, eighteen inches wide and three 
feet long, in a horizontal direction, at the 
end of which was another placed perpendicu- 
larly, two feet high, to form the breast of the 
animal. 

The calves and sheep are of the same struc- 
ture, and large in proportion to the bulls. The 
monkey is in its full form, in a sitting posture. 
The fox is squeezed up by the bandages, but 
in some measure the shape of the head is kept 
perfect. The crocodile is left in its own shape, 
and after being well bound round with linen, 
the eyes and mouth are painted on this cover- 
ing. The birds are squeezed together and lose 
their shape, except the ibis, which is found 
like a fowl ready to be cooked, and bound 
round with linen like all the rest. 

The next sort of mummy that drew my at- 
tention, I believe I may with reason conclude 
to have been appropriated to the priests. 
They are folded in a manner totally different 
from the others, and so carefully executed, as 
to show the great respect paid to those per- 
sonages. The bandages are stripes of red and 
white linen intermixed, covering the whole 
body, and producing a curious effect from the 

21* 



246 WONDERS OF ART. 

two colors. The arms and legs are not en- 
closed in the same envelope with the body, as 
in the common mode, but are bandaged sepa- 
rately, even the fingers and toes being pre- 
served distinct. They have sandals of painted 
leather on their feet, and bracelets on their 
arms and wrists. They are always found with 
the arms across the breast, but not pressing 
it ; and though the body is bound with such a 
quantity of linen, the shape of the person is 
carefully preserved in every limb. The cases 
in which mummies of this sort are found, are 
somewhat better executed, and I have seen 
one that had the eyes and eyebrows of enamel, 
beautifully executed in imitation of nature. 

The dwelling-place of the natives is gener- 
ally in the passages, between the first and 
second entrance into a tomb. The walls and 
the roof are as black as any chimney. The 
inner door is closed up with mud, except a 
small aperture sufficient for a man to crawl 
through. Within this place the sheep are kept 
at night, and occasionally accompany their 
masters in their vocal concert. Over the door- 
way there are always some half-broken Egyp- 
tian figures, and the tw^o foxes, the usual guar- 
dians of burial-places. A small lamp, kept 
alive by fat from the sheep, or rancid oil, is 
placed in a niche in the wall, and a mat is 
spread on the ground ; and this formed the 
grand divan wherever I was. 

There the people assembled round me, their 



WONDERS OF ART. 247 

conversation turning wholly on antiquities. 
Such a one had found such a thing, and an- 
other had discovered a tomb. Various articles 
were brought to sell to me, and sometimes I 
had reason to rejoice at having stayed there. 
I was sure of a supper of milk and bread serv- 
ed in a wooden bowl; but whenever they sup- 
posed I should stay all night, they always kill- 
ed a couple of fowls for me, which were baked 
in a small oven heated with pieces of mummy 
cases, and sometimes with the bones and rags 
of the mummies themselves. It is no uncom- 
mon thing to sit down near fragments of bones: 
hands, feet, or skulls, are often in the way; 
for these people are so accustomed to be among 
the mummies, that they think no more of sit- 
ting on them than on the skins of their dead 
calves. I also became indifferent about them 
at last, and would have slept in a mummy pit 
as readily as out o( it. 

Here they appear to be contented. The la- 
borer comes home in the evening, seats him- 
self n€ar his cave, smokes his pipe with his 
companions, and talks of the last inundation of 
the Nile, its products, and w^iat the ensuing 
season is likely to be. His old wife brings him 
the usual bowl of lentils and bread moistened 
with water and salt, and when she can add 
a little butter, it is a feast. Knowing nothing 
beyond this, he is happy. The young man's 
chief business is to accumulate the amazing 
sum of a hundred piastres, (eleven dollars and 



248 WONDERS OF ART. 

ten cents,) to buy himself a wife, and to make 
a feast on the wedding-day. 

If he have any children, they want no cloth- 
ing : he leaves them to themselves till mother 
Nature pleases to teach them to work, to gain 
money enough to buy a shirt or some other 
rag to cover themselves ; for while they are 
children they are generally naked or covered 
with rags. The parents are roguishly cunning, 
and the children are schooled by their exam- 
ple, so that it becomes a matter of course to 
cheat strangers. Would any one believe that 
in such a state of life, luxury and ambition 
exist ? If any woman be destitute of jewels, 
she is poor, and looks with envy on one more 
fortunate than herself, who perhaps has the 
worth of halt"-a-cro\vn round her neck ; and 
she who has a few glass beads, or some sort 
of coarse coral, a couple of silver brooches, or 
rings on her arms and legs, is considered as 
truly rich and great. Some of them are as 
complete coquettes in their way as any to be 
seen in the capitals of Europe. 

When a young man wants to marry, he 
goes to the father of the intended bride, and 
agrees with him what he is to pay for her. 
This being settled, so much money is to be 
spent on the wedding-day feast. To set up 
housekeeping nothing is requisite but two or 
three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and 
a mat, which is the bed. The spouse has a 
gown and jewels of her own ; and if the bride- 



WONDERS OF ART. 249 

groom present her with a pair of bracelets of 
silver, ivory, or glass, she is happy and fortu- 
nate indeed. 

The house is ready, without rent or taxes. 
No rain can pass through the roof; and there 
is no door, for there is no want of one, as there 
is nothing to lose. They make a kind of box 
of clay and straw, which, after two or three 
days' exposure to the sun, becomes quite hard. 
It is fixed on a stand, an aperture is left to put 
all their precious things into it, and a piece of 
mummy-case forms the door. If the house 
does not please them, they walk out and enter 
another, as there are several hundreds at their 
command ; I might say several thousands, but 
ihey are not all fit to receive inhabitants. 



BURIAL-PLACES NEAR CONSTANTINOPLE. 

A DENSE and motionless crowd of stagnant 
vapors ever shrouds these dreary realms. 
From afar a chilling sensation informs the 
traveller that he approaches their dark and 
dismal precincts ; and as he enters them, an 
icy blast, rising from their inmost bosom, rush- 
es forth to meet his breath, suddenly strikes 
his chest, and seems to oppose his progress. 
His very horse snuffs up the deadly effluvia 
with signs of manifest terror, and, exhaling a 
<iold and clammy sweat, advances reluctantly 
over a hollow ground, which shakes as he 



250 WONDERS OF ART. 

treads it, and loudly re-echoes his slow and 
fearful step. 

So long and so busily has time been at work 
to fill this chosen spot — so repeatedly has Con- 
stantinople poured into this ultimate recepta- 
cle almost its whole contents, that the capital 
of the living, spite of its immense population, 
scarce counts a single breathing inhabitant for 
ov^ery ten silent inmates of this city of the 
dead. Already do its fields of blooming sepul- 
chres stretch far away on every side, across 
the brow of the hills and the bend of the val- 
leys ; already are the avenues which cross 
each other at every step in this domain of 
death so lengthened, that the weary stranger, 
from whatever point he comes, still finds be- 
fore him many a dreary mile of road between 
marshalled tombs and mournful cypresses, ere 
he reaches his journey's seemingly receding 
end ; and yet, every year does this common 
patrimony of all the heirs to decay still exhibit 
a rapidly increasing size, a fresh and wider 
line of boundary, and a new belt of young 
plantations, grov/ing up between new flower- 
beds of graves. 

As I hurried on through this awful reposi- 
tory, the pale, far-stretching monumental 
ranges rose in sight, and again receded rapidly 
from my view in such unceasing succession, 
that at last 1 fancied some spell possessed my 
soul, some fascination kept locked my senses ; 
and I therefore still increased my speed, as if 



WONDERS OP ART. 251 

only on quitting these melancholy abodes I 
could hope to shake off my waking delusion. 
Nor was it until, near the verge of the funereal 
forest through which I had been pacing for 
a full hour, a brighter light again gleamed 
athwart the ghost-like trees, that I stopped to 
look round, and to take a more leisurely sur- 
vey of the ground which I had traversed. 

" There," said I to myself, " lie, scarce one 
foot beneath the surface of a swelling soil, 
ready to burst at every point with its festering 
contents, more than half the generations whom 
death has continued to mow down for near 
four centuries in the vast capital of Islamism. 
There lie, side by side, on the same level, in 
cells the size of their bodies, and only distin- 
guished by a marble turban somewhat longer 
or deeper, somewhat rounder or squarer, per- 
sonages in life far as heaven and earth asun- 
der, in birth, in station, in gifts of nature, and 
in long-labored acquirements. There lie, sunk 
alike in their last sleep, alike food for the 
w^orm that lives on death, the conqueror who fill- 
ed the universe with his name, and the peasant 
scarce known in his owni hamlet ; Sultan Mah- 
moud, and Sultan Mahmoud's perhaps more 
deserving horse ; elders bending under the 
weight of years, and infants of a single hour; 
men with intellects of angels, and men v/ith 
understandings inferior to those of brutes ; the 
beauty of Georgia, and the black of Sennaar : 
viziers, beggars, heroes, and women. 



252 WOXDERS OF ART. 

"There, perliaps, mingle their insensible 
dust, the corrupt judge and the innocent he 
condemned, the murdered man and his mur- 
derer, the master and his meanest slave. There 
vile insects consume the hand of the artist, 
the brain of the philosopher, the eye which 
sparkled w^ith celestial fire, and the lip from 
which flowed irresistible eloquence. All the 
soil pressed by me for the last two hours, was 
once animated like myself; all the mould 
which now clings to my feet, once formed 
limbs and features similar to my own. 

"Like myself, all this black unseemly dust 
once thought, and willed, and moved ! And I, 
creature of clay like those here cast around ; 
I, who travel through life as I do on this road, 
w^ith the remains of past generations strewed 
along my trembling path ; I, whether my jour- 
ney last a few hours more or less, must still, 
like those here deposited, shortly rejoin the si- 
lent tenants of some cluster of tombs, be 
stretched out by the side of some already 
sleeping corpse, and while time continues its 
course, have all my hopes and fears — all my 
i'aculties and prospects — laid at rest on a couch 
of clammy earth/' 






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